Peng Peng Buddha Bear

This tiny teddy bear, only about 5 inches tall, is one of my favorites from the Chicago artist Peng Peng. Peng Peng makes this bear in an incredible variety of materials and designs, all called "Buddha Bears" because of their short stature and portly proportions. (You can see more at her website: http://www.peng-peng.com/.) My little Buddha Bear likes to visit this vintage 1950s toy refrigerator, complete with some original items. Looks like he's got a little box of ice cream at the moment. (Maybe that's why he looks the way he does...)

1908 Teddy Bear Dolls

These are two of the most unique items in my antique teddy bear and doll collection. Called Teddy Girls or Teddy Dolls, they were made around 1908, the year that the teddy bear craze swept America. Doll sales temporarily plummeted, causing manufacturers to worry about their Christmas sales figures. Their solution was the creation of this hybrid half teddy bear, half doll. It was not well received: children wanting either teddy bears or dolls rejected it as being neither, and everyone else was just generally creeped out by it. Dismal sales led to a short shelf life, and Teddy Girls are now rather scarce. I was thrilled to find two very different examples. The large doll features a German-made painted metal head with glass sleep eyes, attached to an American-made bear body. The smaller doll is of a much simpler, more common type, with a celluloid face mask inserted into a teddy bear hood.

Birthday Bears

While decorating for my birthday party last weekend, I made this arrangement of vintage toys on an antique cake stand. The big bear wearing the straw hat is a funny English teddy from the 1930s; next to him is an old mechanical bear who "drinks" from his red wooden cup; down in front are a 1920s Steiff duck on wheels and a miniature Steiff lion; to the left is an original set of Bill Ding Clowns; perched just below the mechanical bear is a tin-faced Shuco monkey; and riding the duck is Ting-Ting, a fabulous bear made by teddy artist Peng Peng from Chicago.