Well, after an extremely busy week of bear-themed activities, here I am back sitting on my step, halfway down the stairs!

Still pondering on the ‘sensibleness’ of agreeing to write a regular Bear Blog.

I spend every day, cataloguing and listing bears, photographing bears, boxing up bears, sending them to new homes with a smile and I love my job.

Who knew that I could have an actual job ‘playing’ with teddy bears all day!

But, I need to be able to find the route into writing a Bear Blog…

So, pondering on ‘why bears’, I started to research why teddy bears have over the years captured so many people’s imaginations and continue to tug at our heart strings!

As I came across many fascinating facts, I have decided to share some of them in this week’s blog…

Do you know what a person who is fond of or loves collecting teddy bears is known as?

They would be an Arctophile.

This combines the Greek words Arctos (bear) and Philos (loving or fond of).

Fascinating Teddy Facts!

In 1834 the English romantic writer Robert Southey brought bears into the literary scene with the fairy-tale ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’.

The expression ‘bear hug’ meaning a firm embrace, was introduced almost 60 years before the first teddy bear was ‘born’ in 1846.

It has long been believed that German toy maker Margarete Steiff created the first toy teddy bear in 1902 and that it was a stuffed, jointed bear.

In 1907, John W. Bratton composed the ‘Teddy Bear Two-Step’, which later became famous as the tune for ‘The Teddy Bears Picnic’.

In 1912, when the Titanic sank whilst on her maiden voyage, Margarete Steiff made a line of black bears as mourning gifts for those who lost their friends and family in this tragic accident.

Walt Disney the ‘animation’ movie giant produced ‘Alice and the Three Bears’, which was the first colour cartoon film featuring teddy bears in 1924.

The first British Teddy Bear Festival was held in 1989 in London.

In February 1995, Magellan T. Bear from Elk Creek Elementary School in Pine, Colorado, joined a NASA mission in his role as the school’s ambassador.

Paul Greenwood, an american multi-billionaire investor owned the largest collection of teddy bears. The US government auctioned his collection of 1300 teddy bears at Christie’s for £1.1 million in 2010.

A teddy bear robot for adults that can make simple gestures and even small talk with humans has been manufactured by Japanese company Fujitsu.

Although, I have to say, I think I’ll be staying with my soft, cuddly teddy bears for now.

I’m not sure if I’m ready for ‘Robo-Ted’ quite yet!

We would be pleased to hear any other fascinating facts

about your own bears…

Thank You!  ?

 

sueandbear@exceptionalbears.com

Or drop us a comment!