Figure 1.--Here we see a brother and sister sharing a wonderful teddy. We are not sure who it belonged to or if they shared it. Perhaps it was a studio teddy. Unfortunately we are not sure whhere the children are from. We thought the teddy looked rather German, but of course the Germans exported teddies. Nor do we know where tge children are from. We think they may be American, but are not at all sure. We believe the portrait was taken about 1930. A reader writes, "is this really a Steiff-bear? It looks like an imitation. The true Steiff-bears (and Steiff-animals) have a button in the left ear (I admit I don't know when it started). They are at least to-day sold under the jargon "Steiff Knopf im Ohr", the trade mark." Not we are not at all sure about the teddy. Unfortunately there was no indication on this portrait as to its origins. Theboy wears a short pants suit, probably a velvet suit. The girl wears a plainer smock-like dress.

The teddy bear does not feature prominently in historical photographs. One report indicted that stuffed bears were created by Margarete Steiff in 1877. (See "Germany" below.) The Steiff company was established in 1880. Their bears were not at first, however, what we would call true teddies. A German reader tells us, "They started producing different kinds of animals, including bears, but not teddies. A teddy is a fully jointed bear doll, everything else is just a stuffed bear." Richard Steiff in 1902 developed the first real teddy bear. He called it the "Bärle". He introduced it at Leipzig Toy Fair in 1903. The first big order came from an American importer. The name teddy came after the bears began to be sold in America. The teddy acquired its name from President Theodote "Teddy" Roosevelt who was enormously popular. A political cartoonist in 1902 depicted an incident in which President Roosevelt, a noted hunter, refused to shoot a bear cub. After the Steiff bears appeared in America and American companies began making them as well, the name teddy quickly caught on. Thus the teddy bear, at least in America, is a very effective chronological indicator, as least to demonstrate that an image was taken after the turn-of-the-20th century. After the turn-of-the-century, the time line is more complicated. The chronology varies in different countries.

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Created: 6:41 AM 9/14/2004
Last updated: 4:12 PM 9/21/2004