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I was lucky enough to be the first person to respond to an ad from someone who wanted to give away his late mom's collection of teddies. Unfortunately I know nothing about teddies, can someone perhaps tell me how to go about identifying them if they have no labels on? even some with labels I cannot find (Hermann Teddy original 63/17). For some reason I cannot attach a photo, if I click on the "img" tab it does nothing!
Here's an article about Hermann: http://www.hermannteddy.com/
How many teddies have you acquired? Are they mostly new or vintage/antique? It can take years to become familiar with all the different kinds of teddy bears. There are some good teddy-bear reference books, but bears with no labels might be handmade (or else antique, or they've had their tags snipped off...).
If you can upload some photos (check out the Technical Help section of this forum for the steps), people here do like a mystery!
Becky
Ooo mystery!
Hi, thanks for the replies. I received about 29 teddies, here are photos of a couple:
I have only been able to identify the little black one, the little green one and the Laura Ashley. I am having problems with the Merrythoughts one with the tag as all the photos I see the tag is on the right foot, this one is the left foot? and then with the little Hermann ones... the photos all seem to have foot pads where these do not??? Pooh Bear can be wound up on te back and plays music. The "old" guy in the first photo has "something" in his stomach, I guess he used to growl? I do not want to spend alot of money on books as I do not plan on keeping them all (I have enough other hobbies which I do not even get chance to get to) Thanks for the help anyway!
The bear on the left (top photo) appears to the the oldest. I'd say he's English (maybe Chad Valley) ca 1950s.
The others are all "vintage" or newer bears. (I wasn't able to find any info on a Merrthought zodiac bear.)
Perhaps your best bet is to search for similar bears on ebay, and just start watching ebay auctions. If you know you don't want to keep a bear, you could simply list it with a low starting bid. If it's something rare or desirable, the collectors will find it and will drive the price up. (I don't see anything in the collection with a very high monetary value, so I'd say you'd be safe in doing that.)
Becky
I like the little brown western guy with that hat! So cute