Priced and ready for Hugglets this Sunday...

Here are a few of the bears and friends ready for Hugglets this Sunday, 12th September. Can you believe it's here already!

Really looking forward to it, I have 70% new stock which hasn't been on the website yet, so hope to see you there.

Stand 77 in hall 2, come and say hello...

Pom.pom.pom.pom

Who remembers as a child, cutting out two rings from a cereal pack, getting some old wool and wrapping it round and round. Then finally cutting along the edge of the wool and tie with another piece of wool, ending up with a woollen pom-pom.

Well Steiff took this to another level, making all sorts of wonderful animals.

Here is one of the rarest items, a Teddy Bear; just under 1000 of these were produced in the 1930s.
Here is one lot in the Christie's sale, three ducks, with pom-poms on their heads. The green one on the right is a rare colour and the central one has tinplate webbed feet which is fairly rare.
This is a rare piece, a cockerel pin for your lapel.
Here are two little birds sat on a pincushion.

Lots more pom-pom woollen animals and birds coming up in the sale on the 13th October.

Register for bidding or order your catalogue from www.christies.com

Sorry to keep talking Steiff...but

here are some more delights from Christie's sale on 13th October 2010.

This is a beautiful standing velvet cat from around 1908, look at his original ribbon stamped Steiff.. there must been 15 similar velvet cats in the sale!!

Here is the maddest white rabbit you have ever seen. This has a Muster button, so was made as a sample. He is in perfect condition and has Steiff button and complete red cloth tag. From the late 1920s, he is completely amazing.
Look at this great Teddy Baby.. don't you just love his frosted mohair.
Here is a rare white mohair muzzle Teddy Bear, very rare in this colour. Not everyones cup of tea, but I love them...
This is a great Peter Rabbit, sold originally at one of the Steiff Festival Auctions. He has a blank button and is amazing condition.
One of a large selection of Steiff woollen animals, this hunting fox is very rare and comes complete with button and cream paper tag.
One of my favourite items in the sale, a duck cart with Puck driver..
And finally something not so rare, but very beautiful. A Steiff blonde Teddy Bear, what a darling!
Christie's are only printing a limited number of this catalogue. It will be an amazing record, 641 lots all illustrated in colour. Virtually everything Steiff made. I would strongly recommend ordering one soon. To order use the details below..

The e-mail address is:
subscribe-uk@christies.com

Teddy Bears - A private collection sale number 5035.
Rest of world = £22
European €32
USA $34

Here is another beauty from the Christie's Steiff auction..

This is a mohair and felt Clown Roly-Poly from around 1910..

Can anyone help me with this Steiff Lion?

Look at this lion, do you know why he was made? He is from the 1950s, he seems to have the same body as the Meckies and Dwarves from this period. He is the most beautiful character. He is holding a piece of paper which has pencil writing on it, this hard to read, but says something like 'Eine kinde..... wi..sor'?

If you can help, I would love to hear from you.

Thanks Daniel

I have added a photo of the piece of paper... can anyone read it and does it give you a clue to what he is?

Christie's Steiff Auction 13th October 2010

Here is a rather lovely black Steiff Teddy Bear, circa 1913. Sixteen inches of rare Teddy!

One of the many amazing Steiff Teddy Bears and soft toys to be included in the sale.

If you would like a copy of the full colour catalogue, email Christie's and place an order soon..

subscribe-uk@christies.com

Save the date - 13th October 2010

Christie's South Kensington with my help will be selling the most important collection of Steiff Teddy Bears and Soft Toys ever to come on the market. More details will follow on this blog and my website over the coming weeks. So stay tuned..

Look at this amazing Steiff lapel pin..

Isn't he wonderful, a little circus monkey with original hat and ruff. He has a small brass safety pin on the back. Dating from around 1910, he is a very rare find.....

I forgot to say,,, it also has his original FF underscored button.

This is to be sold in the Christie's 13th October sale.

Steiff woollen pussy cat with velvet mouse.

Does anybody like Steiff toys and Teddy Bears out there? Perhaps one of the most collectable toy company in the world!

I thought I might share this amazing toy, dating from around 1906, this is huge for this type of toy. 14 inches (35.5 centimetres) from head to bottom, not including tail. I have never seen anything like it!

As you can see she has caught a grey velvet mouse between her paws! Meaow.

Toy Boats at Greenwich National Maritime Museum

I went recently to this very interesting exhibition. The world famous London National Maritime Museum in Greenwich has an exhibition of toy boats. This runs until 31 October 2010 and is free to enter.

Firstly, I must apologise for my poor photographs, they give you an idea, but I couldn't use flash, so they look a bit odd.
It is a small but perfectly formed exhibition with some very rare items. Early games, wooden Noah's Ark and lots of amazing tinplate boats.
Many of the boats are French from the Musee national de la Marine in Paris.
This is a Marklin battleship H.M.S. Terrible
This boy riding on top of a speed boat amused me, this is spirit-fired.
This French toy of two bisque dolls rowing is just wonderful.


This is a very charming river boat with sun canopy.

If you can get there, it is well worth a visit and the rest of the museum is very interesting. We travelled there by boat, the Clipper service is very good and fun. This is some pics of the return journey at sunset, passing Canary Wharf.

Visit their website for more details Greenwich Maritime Museum

Clifford K Berryman

Sorry for not blogging for a while, I have been away on business. I have an exciting new project which might interest some Bear/Steiff lovers out there. I will keep you post as things develop.

Here I am showing you some original Clifford K Berryman artwork in the form of dinner place setting cards, that I have just sold to a client. They are two exciting and wonderful not to share.

They are all dated from the early 1940s and feature Berryman's famous bear that he first drew when Roosevelt refused to shoot a little bear cub in the Washington Post on 14th November 1902.
The Berryman's seemed to have had a fair few dinner parties and it looks like each person had a personalised card. The ones that have survived appear to have been done for his family.When at Christie's I sold a very important group of Teddy Bears and soft toys, which belonged to Berryman (13 December 2005); these were from the estate sale of Berryman's daughter Florence. This was held at an auction house in Washington in 1992, it is presumed that these are from the same sale.
It was during this auction, a similar postcard was sold within the lot and from this we discovered that this little bear had a name, Bevo. He had become a star in his own right. One of the bears in the Christie's lot was a very fine black American Teddy Bear which had the same facial mask as Bevo. At the time I believed this to be Berryman's very own Teddy Bear of Bevo.

It can be claimed that Berryman was the true creator of the Teddy Bear and this makes these original drawing very important items in Teddy Bear history.

Two interesting German market World War II toys

I have finally worked out how to get images in the right order on my blog, hurrah! Here are two really interesting toys that I have just bought, I have listed them on eBay, so if you would like to buy them and are reading this blog before 8pm on the 22nd June 2010, have a look.

The first one is a very interesting game to encourage new recruits to the German army. There is a label on the side of the box which says "Oh, welche Lust Soldat zu sein!" which translates to "Oh, what Joy to be a Soldier!". As you can see it is a four-fold colour printed board.

The box is plain red, which would suggest to me that it might actually made during the war, as people were more economic with supplies during these years. The game comes with die, counters and little cards.

The game comes with original instructions, sorry I haven't translated them, so I am not sure if the game is complete or how to play it.
Here are close-ups of each quarter of the game. From the initial call up to the army medical, cough now!
Being fitted out with your new uniform as a Storm Trooper.
Doing boring sentry duty.
Earning your stripes.
Perhaps being congratulated on winning the war!!!

Here is the next toy I bought from the same person, I suspect they were one child's toys. This is a constructional/puzzle toy of a battleship.

The label on the lid reads "Flotten baukasten erzeugnis der bayerischen ostmark" and translates as "Nifty Modular Product of the Eastern Bavaria". It is also marked DRGM. An ex-colleague of mine, who was much older and perhaps remembers the war years; use to say DRGM stood for Dirty Rotten German Muck!

There are plans for two German, two French, one British and one Italian vessel.

It is in nice condition, but not quite complete. It is missing a piece of the prow, the pointed front end. This is just wood which is painted grey, I think this would be fairly easy to replace.
As you can see the box is a bit tatty.

I find these both very interesting. I have also seen games called Bombing England; where you can bomb various cities of England. You obviously have the same sort of games which are about Bombing Germany..