| 1834 |
Robert
Southey writes Goldilocks and the Three Bears |
| 1894 |
German
toy company Gebrüder Sussenguth
show a stuffed bear toy in their catalogue. |
| 1897 |
Bear
skittles and ‘roly-poly’ toy bears feature in the Steiff catalogue
and the Steiff company takes its
own stand at the Leipzig toy fair. |
| 1899 |
Margarete
Steiff registers patents for 23 of her soft toy designs, including
a dancing bear and a bear
handler with a brown bear. |
| 1902 |
November.
Morris Michtom sells the first ‘Teddy’s Bear’ in his
Brooklyn shop. |
| 1903 |
March.
Steiff Company sells 3000 of its 55PB bear to America. |
| 1906 |
May.
First advertisement for plush bear toys, still called
Bruins, in the American toy
trade magazine Playthings.
|
| 1906 |
November.
First advertisement using the words Teddy Bear, by
American manufacturer E.J. Horsman,
in the American toy trade magazine Playthings. |
| 1907 |
Dean’s
Rag Book Company publishes Teddy Bear, by Alice Scott, illustrated by Sybil Scott Paley. |
| 1907 |
Seymour
Eaton publishes The
Roosevelt Bears newspaper strip in book form (USA) |
| 1907 |
Music
of the famous song, The Teddy Bear’s Picnic, written by American
composer J.K. Bratton. Originally called The Teddy Bear Two Step. |
| 1908 |
Dean’s
Rag Book Company advertises cut out and sew teddy bears in
Home Chat
magazine. |
| 1908 |
Large
plush bear, unidentified, appears in a Dean’s advertisement. |
| 1908 |
J.K.
Farnell company makes the first British teddy bears. |
| 1909 |
First
cartoon animated teddy-bear cartoon, Little Johnny and the Teddy Bears, made
in the USA. |
| 1911 |
The
Bruin Boys first appearance in Arthur Mee’s Children’s
Encyclopaedia. |
| 1912 |
Steiff
create black teddy bears to give as mourning gifts after the
sinking of the Titanic. |
| 1915 |
Dean’s
advertise plush teddy bears, made in their new workshop, in their Kuddlemee
toys catalogue. |
| 1919 |
First
non-stop Atlantic flight by teddy bears when aviation pioneers
Alcock and Brown take teddy bear mascots with them on record
breaking flight. |
| 1919 |
First British comic-strip teddy bear character, Bobby
Bear, published in the Daily Herald |
| 1920 |
First
Rupert Bear picture story, Little Lost Bear, written
and illustrated by Mary Tourtel, appears in the UK newspaper,
The Daily Express. |
| 1921 |
German
company Schuco patent the Yes/No bear |
| 1921 |
J.K.
Farnell set up the Alpha works, making bears designed by Cybil
Kent. |
| 1924 |
First
colour animation film with a teddy bear theme when Walt Disney
produces Alice and the Three Bears |
| 1926 |
First
Edition of Winnie-the-Pooh
by A.A. Milne, published. |
| 1930 |
First teddy bears made by UK firm Merrythought with
designs by Florence Atwood |
| 1930 |
Lyrics
of The Teddy Bear’s
Picnic written by Jimmy Kennedy and set to the original music written in 1907. |
| 1938 |
H.M.
Queen Elizabeth (now The Queen Mother) grants a Royal Warrant
to |
| 1939 |
British
teddy bear makers Chad
Valley. |
| 1944 |
Smokey
Bear adopted as the mascot of the United States Forest Fire
Prevention Campaign. |
| 1948 |
'Biffo' The Bear appears for the first time in The Beano
|
| 1952 |
First appearance of Sooty, the teddy
bear glove puppet and magician, on British television.
|
| 1953 |
Steiff
celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Steiff bears with a new style
bear, ‘a comical young
bear cub’, called Jackie
Baby. |
| 1954 |
Wendy
Boston, Welsh toy maker,
produces the first truly washable teddy bear. |
| 1958 |
Publication
of the first Paddington story, A Bear Called Paddington, by Michael Bond. |
| 1959 |
Walt Disney acquire the rights to
Winnie-the-Pooh.
|
| 1962 |
Colonel Bob Henderson launches The Teddy Bear Club |
| 1962 |
Margaret
Baker publishes The
Shoe Shop Bears |
| 1969 |
Peter
Bull publishes Bear
With Me (USA The
Teddy Bear Book) |
| 1969 |
Jim
Ownby launches the charity Good Bears of the World. |
| 1975 |
Walt
Disney’s first animated film of Winnie-the-Pooh appears. |
| 1979 |
Peter
Bull designs his traditionally styled Bully Bears for House
of Nisbet. |
| 1979 |
Marquis
of Bath organises the Great Teddy Bear Rally at Longleat. |
| 1981 |
Peter
Bull’s 1907 American bear, Delicatessen, stars in the television
adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s novel
Brideshead Revisited. |
| 1985 |
Christie’s
of London hold the first ever teddy bear only auction. |
| 1988 |
Gyles
and Michele Brandreth found The Teddy Bear Museum in William
Shakespeare’s home town of Stratford upon Avon |
| 1989 |
First
British Teddy Bear Festival held in London. |
| 1989 |
Happy Anniversary, a 1926 tipped mohair Steiff bear,
is sold at auction in London for
£55,000 to American Paul Volpp as a 42nd wedding
anniversary gift for his wife, Rosemary. |
| 1990
|
First
Steiff UK Limited Edition. |
| 1990 |
Hermann Teddy Original 75th Anniversary
Limited Edition |
| 1990 |
Merrythought
Diamond Jubilee Limited Edition. |
| 1994 |
Teddy Girl, a 1904 cinnamon Steiff bear formerly owned
by Colonel Bob Henderson, is sold at auction in London for
£110,000 to Yoshihiro Sekiguchi, founder of the Teddy Bear
Museum in Izu, Japan. |
| 1996 |
Teddy Edward, the world’s most travelled bear, is bought at
auction by Yoshihiro Sekiguchi of the Izu Teddy Bear Museum
for £34,500 |
| 1998 |
Guinness
(8.5 mm tall), made by Lynn Lumb of Halifax, England, enters
The Guinness Book of Records as the world’s smallest teddy
bear. |
