Teddies I can't bear to part with

THEY have their own sitting room and some of them have lived through two world wars, so the thought of them being swept up in a house clearance was too much to bear.
Jill Barker with one of her 35 bears, which she has collected over nearly half a century and are going under the hammer.Jill Barker with one of her 35 bears, which she has collected over nearly half a century and are going under the hammer.
Jill Barker with one of her 35 bears, which she has collected over nearly half a century and are going under the hammer.

Jill Barker had been collecting stuffed teddy bears since she was a child, but her first set had to be burned when she contracted scarlet fever.

“I was about eight at the time and was so upset. I used to cuddle them in bed,” she said.

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“I think that may be why I have always loved teddy bears so much.”

Now 70, and with no children to bequeath them to, she has decided to sell their replacements to good homes, rather than see them scattered to car boot sales.

Some 35 bears, worth up to £,2000 each, will go under the auctioneer’s hammer later this month as individual lots, so they can be “protected and treasured” by a new owner.

They include rare toys from the early 20th century German manufacturer, Bing, and Chad Valley bears similar to those favoured by the Queen Mother for the royal children.

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Miss Barker, a retired teacher, will keep just five for herself, including one given to her by her sister, Mary.

She said: “I am worried about the future.

“I have been collecting my bears for nearly 50 years and I want to protect them.”

Her house in South Derbyshire is a shrine to her collection, with toys on chairs in their own “bear room”, dressed in jumpers she buys from vintage clothes stores.

“The clothes help to protect their fur,” she said. “I buy clothes with a period feel.

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“Ideally, they should be in a museum. These are not toys to be played with - they are historical collectors’ items.”

Her hoard spans six decades but for the last two, she has been specialising in antique bears.

“I have two early Bings which are very special, beautiful bears. One dates from 1908 and the other from the 1920s and both have mohair fur.”

A Bing she bought from Christies in 2007 comes with its history and a photograph of the child who loved it first, Emmi Bruckmann from Stuttgart.

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The documentation reveals that it was given to her on her first birthday in December 1926, by her father.

It was bigger than she was, and she was afraid of it at first. When she was a toddler, she began to play with it.

Miss Barker said: “Every bear has an individual history.

“They have been through world wars. There are emotional ties to these bears. Some are worn because they have been hugged so much. A collection of bears is known as a hug.”

The first teddies were made by the German firm, Steiff, in 1902 and the bears Miss Barker is auctioning, at Hansons in Etwall, Derbyshire, date from 1908 to the 1950s. They were hand-made, with moveable limbs and are filled with wood wool.

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“I decided to buy the best bears I could afford,” said Miss Barker, who gave them names like Max, Biggles, Bruzzer and the Beckett-esque Estragon.

“The Bings are the most valuable ones,” she said. They are worth £1,500-£2,000 each but I also have Merrythoughts, Chiltern and Chad Valley bears.

“My great fear is that, if I do nothing, they could be swept up in a house clearance by people who don’t understand their value.”

She said she decided to sell after reading of Gill Burch, a retired teaching assistant, who auctioned the bear she had treasured for 65 years.