Banner Sponsors

EvaJ May 19, 2011

Does anyone know if there was or still is an artist bear maker who goes by the name Bearly There Co. from Fountain Valley California.  Some one has a bear called Tatters and it is 2 or 20 and wants to know a little more about the bear.  Right now I do not have a picture of the bear which I know always helps.

Please let me know if you have heard or know this person.

Thank you, Eva

kellydean May 19, 2011

I did a quick google and came up with this -

http://www.grovesbears.com/bearlythereco2.html

you could email Groves and ask them

boohbears May 19, 2011

I did a google search, too, Eva and came up with Linda Spiegel of Bearly There Co. in Fountain Valley, CA -
Hugs,
Janice

BeauT Bears May 19, 2011

I found this:

http://www.lindaspiegel.com/

Cannot read it though, seems Japanese to me.

Linda Spiegel is the name of the artist of Bearly There.

Site looks pretty recent to me. There is a 'contact' button on her website.

EvaJ May 19, 2011

Thank you ladies for all the help.  I will tell the person who is looking for this.  I know someone on here could give me answers.

I am sorry I don't come on this site much anymore as I quit doing teddy bears last summer and now am just refurbishing dolls.  I guess I should change my avatar on here 

minkbears May 19, 2011

Looks like I'm one of the few old-timer artists that actually remembers Linda Spiegel's bears. Since she is also from Southern California her bears were always available at all of the Teddy Bear shows (when I was doing them) here in the 1990s. Linda was an early and wildly successful bear artist, who created one of the first "cottage industries" to help her make her bears when she could not keep up with demand.  The "Bearly There" bears were some of the first Artist Designed bears that were ever offered ... and they were not made in China... I tend to remember that she had local people sewing for her. She would design her quirky looking bears and offer them in limited editions (some under 100 and others in the hundreds). Of course, since they were available to collectors at substantially lower prices than the OOAK Artist Bears in the shows, they were very popular and most collectors in the early 90s had some Bearly There bears in their collection.
  ~ Kathy

lulubears May 20, 2011

I'm one of the "old timers" too.  The last time I saw Linda Spiegel was in Houston back in the 90's.  We did a signing at a bear shop there.  She was so easy to talk to and gave me a lot of information on a couple of her bears that I had purchased, but didn't have tags on.  She also offered to sign them for me.  She was not in the best of health then, and if memory serves me correctly, she retired from the bear world pretty quickly after that.  I have a number of her bears, and they all have a pretty recognizable look.

A lot of her bears are featured in Japanese books, so that may be one of the best ways to locate Tatters.  If you can find the bear by the photograph in one of the Japanese books, you may be able to have the information translated.

Luann