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.