| The teddy bear was born in 1902, he was invented by Richard Steiff, nephew of the famous Margarete Steiff of the Steiff Company in Germany. His impact on the toy world was tremendous and he was soon popular all around the world.
After the First World War, however, the English teddy bear became very popular as people objected to buying german products and that included german toys.
A famous English company producing teddy bears was the Merrythought company, the name Merrythought is taken from an ancient english word meaning the wishbone of a bird - hence, the teddies being a 'wish come true'. The wishbone has now become the company's trademark. The first Merrythought teddy bears were produced in 1930, the toy factory was established in Coalbrookdale, near Ironbridge by two partners, W.G.Holmes and H.G. Lawson. One of the earliest teddy bears made by Merrythought was the Magnet bear, he was made in gold or coloured mohair and came in four sizes. Also in 1931 they produced the original Merrythought teddy bear who came in gold mohair and also he was produced on various colours and made of art silk. He was soon joined by a second Merrythought bear who came in a long curly mohair plush.
In the early days of Merrythought most of the teddy bears were made by hand, the only machine in the factory was a simple sewing machine and a machine for the cutting of paw pads.
The 1930's was a very busy and very successful time for teddy bears and Merrythought became the largest soft toy company in England. However, during the Second World War the factory was taken over and used for war work and the company moved it's premises to Wellington where it now made gas mask bags and some sleeve badges to help the war effort.
In 1946 production started again. Today the company still resides on the banks of the iver Severn in Ironbridge and the teddy bears are still handmade. One of their most popular teddy bears has to be the unusual Cheeky Bear. In 1956 whilst at a trade fair a customer picked up a teddy and said "what a cheeky little bear." He has been called Cheeky ever since!! Cheeky Bears have large round heads and gorgeous velvet muzzles. He is an extremely distinctive teddy bear and is nothing at all like the classic teddy bear that we all know. I wonder what Richard Steiff would have thought about the Cheeky Bear?
Cheeky was desgned by Jean Barber, the first Cheeky Bears were made in two material combinations, gold plush and shaggy gold mohair, or art silk plus, they were stuffed with kapok and had bells in both ears. Merrythought Cheeky Bears are very very popular with teddy bear lovers the world over and they can fetch very high prices.
At www.ginosbeas.co.uk we love old and new Cheeky Bears, we adore their crazy looks and their inspirational design and usually you will find a good selection of them on our site. By the way did you know that the late Dusty Springfield had a gorgeous little Cheeky Teddy Bear who she called Mr Einstein?
For more Cheeky Bears and lots more other old, new and collectible teddy bears take a look at ginosbears.co.uk and we hope you will enjoy your visit and we look forward very much to meeting you there. |
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