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Posts: 298My Christmas present from my father arrived today (I picked it out myself on ebay), a lovely old bear, from England according to the seller, but he's got one strange feature that I've never seen before.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Large-antique-t … true&rt=nc
Do you see how in the first picture his legs look like they're the swing type? Well, in the bottom front of his torso is something big and metal, with two little metal loops sticking out, like they're supposed to be connected to the legs. They've made holes in his skin near where his legs join the body, so I want to open him up and take the metal out, and I'll take some pictures of the mechanism. Has anyone ever heard of a bear jointed like this? He almost looks like he's supposed to be some sort of walker. He's very firmly stuffed with excelsior- do you think I'll have any chance of managing to get all of it back into him the way it is now, or is it better to stuff him with wool? His fur is really fuzzy and sort of matted deep down, like he needs a nice brushing, and he's surprisingly dirty, so I'm dying to give him a bath. I'm nervous about cleaning him, though, because I don't know for sure what he's made of. It doesn't feel like mohair or wool, because it's so fuzzy, but he might feel different once he's clean. Would you handwash his unstuffed pieces, or surface wash him?
It sounds as if the bear might be the wire-jointed type. (Steiff made a very early "rod-jointed" bear.)
He would have a horizontal wire running from leg to leg, and another from arm to arm. Then there could be a vertical wire as well joining the other two wires for stability.
Becky
I didn't remember quite correctly - The vertical wire is for the head. This link shows an x-ray of an early rod-jointed bear: http://www.antiquetrader.com/articles/w … eddy_bears
And here you can see some old bisque dolls jointed with wires:
Posts: 298Well, he certainly had a lot of metal in him! 
The poor guy's arm joints (disc jointed, cotter pins) were so rusted that they didn't move at all anymore and the rust had stained the backing as well as some of the fur itself. His legs were rod-jointed, but not like the Steiff bear. I'll post pictures of the mechanism later today. I'll have to research rod-jointed bears to try to get an idea of his country of origin and time period. The seller said that he was from England, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was German. I don't jnow how the seller could stand to part with him, she seemed so attached. She sent me an email last night, saying that she hoped he would have a good home and that I would love him. 
His fur was originally the most gorgeous bright yellow, long and soft, and a lot straighter than it is now. He must have had a lot of hugs. 
surprisingly, the excelsior came out in nice bear-shaped pieces, so I might be able to put it back, if I'm very careful and a little clever. 
While I have him apart, I'm going to make a muslin pattern of him to preserve. That would be all right, wouldn't it, if I used part of it in the future? I forgot to vacuum him before I took him apart, so I'll go over his pieces later today.
Posts: 298Here are the photos, showing his internal structure, replaced into his excelsior torso with his head on top, and the beautiful color of his mohair. 
Weird, huh? I tried to get a picture of his "insides" standing up, to show how his legs would have swung, but my batteries died. 
His leg pads were so worn, there was no more fur left and the material underneath was dried and stiff. I plan to make him some new ones out of leather.
I can't wait to see him when he is done!!!
Wow - That's quite the apparatus! This bear is going to be an even more special to you after all the surgeries are completed.
Becky
