1950s Pedigree Teddy Bear

At an antique show this past weekend, I found this rather odd teddy bear, made in Ireland by Pedigree in the 1950s. He has such a strange conformation, with those loooong legs and itty bitty stumpy arms:

And his head is even odder, described by several of my teddy bear guide books as "bulbous", with gigantic, oversized eyes and a huge schnoz made of molded felt. I've never seen a bear with features that fill so much of his face:

Country Antique Show Report

Another rainy day, another antique show...this one quite a distance from home, waaaaay out in the countryside, but well worth it.

Finds included:

     -a pair of early 1900s toddler's boots, in black and brown leather,

perfect for an antique teddy bear

     -the craziest looking bear I've ever seen: a 1950s British ted with
huge eyes, a big felt nose, and a

      smile that fills up the bottom third of his head

     -and a motorized Steiff dealer display from the 1980s, 

featuring a huge, revolving teddy bear

Pics soon!

Antique Teddy Bear Twins

The Teddy Bear Twins are a couple of (originally) matching 

16 inch British bears circa 1916-18. 

They belonged to twin brothers 

who moved to the United States in the 1920s.  

The bears were constant companions as the boys grew up.

The bear on the left has his original dark paw pads, while his
sibling on the right has felt replacements.

The bears have unusually long bodies, with very exaggerated humps, 

which can be seen in profile:

It's interesting to see how differently the matched pair of bears have evolved, due to the different use they withstood from their owners. Although both were clearly well-loved, one has definitely fared better, while his brother, in addition to losing his pads, has been squashed flat (probably from being slept on for years and years) and appears to have had a nose job.

I found these bears several years ago, and, I'm ashamed to say,

 haven't come up with names for them yet.

Suggestions welcome!

Vintage Trolls

Found these two fab 1960s trolls at an antique show last weekend. They're early DAM trolls, in the scarcer 5 1/2 inch size. Both have mohair wigs and their original clothes. The guy in yellow has glass eyes, while his blue-haired friend sports a purple "spiral" pair.

It's always a thrill to spot good quality old trolls at a show or shop. They're really not that easy to find, which seems strange, considering the vast numbers of them made in the 1960s. But they got a lot of play back in the day, and their materials (early vinyl, felt, and mohair) tended to not hold up too well. Save 'em if you see 'em!

1960s Four-Unit Vending Machine

Lugged home from an antique show last weekend was this 1960s four-unit vending machine. Made in Canada by the Beaver Machine Corporation (still in business today), it holds two 1 cent, one 5 cent, and one 10 cent vendor, and measures almost 4 feet tall. Three of the machines need restoration, but the stand itself is in pretty good shape. (It looks worse than it is in this photo, only because it's really dirty. I had to haul it out of a muddy field.)

And the best part of all: one of the globes still contained a bunch of old vending prizes, and not just any prizes, but rather valuable mechanical ones, including little skulls with pop-out eyes and tongues, and teeny apples with worms that poke out when you turn the top.

I bought these two 1 inch gumball prizes a few years ago, along with their original vending machine sign, and they actually cost almost as much as this whole machine did ($35), so it was super-exciting to find all these in one of the globes:

Woo-hoo! Lotsa skulls!

And here are the mechanical apples, also about an inch tall each:

 Kinda gross, but still really cool old gumball prizes.