My First Auction Bears

I have never purchased bears from an auction before, but thought I would try my hand when a collection of well worn bears were listed at a local one.
Most lots went well above my 'absentee' bids.  I couldn't attend in person as I was 100 miles away looking after my Grandsons.  However I managed to get 2 lots and this great hug of bears came home with me. :)

Pedigree mohair, Unkown plush, Lefray mohair

Lefray plush, Deans mohair, Chad Valley mohair

 The first to have a makeover was this little Pedigree bear.  He is not in bad condition, and just needed a good clean and brush.  He is available in my Etsy shop.



Next came this big English plush bear with a deep growl who I named Big Boy.

He was listed on Etsy and sold within 24 hours to a customer of mine who lives in Japan.  As we speak, he is winging his way overseas, as he was posted yesterday.  He caused a bit of amusement in the Post Office as every time his parcel was tipped over he complained in his deep growly voice.

The next to be mended and cleaned up was the Lefray plush bear.

His arm needed a new joint and while I was at it I took a look at his non working squeaker.  He can now make a little squeak with a poke in the tummy (not surprising, it would make me squeak if someone did that to me!).  He is listed in my Etsy shop.

I have started mending the paws of the Chad Valley bear, but his hand paws will need patches.

The 1930's Deans bear I looked at late one night and got so engrossed in sorting out his problems that it was past midnight before I got to bed!  He needs a new head joint, and new hand paws.  He only had one ear so I have found suitable mohair in my offcuts and dyed it as close as I can to the original.  The original two pieces of ear will form the fronts of his 2 new ears, with the dyed pieces at the back.  I think he will be a handsome bear when he is finished.

Finally, the Lefray mohair bear, who needs his arm joints mending.

So, between restoring these. and making up a stock of little Pud Bears, I will be busy for a few weeks. :)  If you would like to know when these bears and the new artist bears go on sale, go to my FB page and 'like' it to get updates on the bears' progress.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pud-Bears-and-Pollys-Vintage-Bears/174222365967942

My Etsy shops are  www.etsy.com/shop/PollysVintageBears and www.etsy.com/shop/pollyspinsandneedles

 

Hermann Bears With a New Lease of Life

I have a group of Hermann bears in my Etsy shop at the moment. Three of them are from around the 1950's.
The first one though is a more modern example that I would not have recognised as a Hermann bear, but I am told on good authorisation that he is.  He is definitely a German bear.
This cute chap is really cuddly with a good covering of mohair. 

 



SOLD

 The next is this cheerful open mouthed bear with his black dog.  He is not jointed, but sits quite happily if leaning on something.
I had to remove his head (sorry if you are squeamish, I hated doing it) and stitch it back on again as it was in danger of falling off.
He has a squeaker that works when it feels like it!


This grumpy looking growling Hermann bear stands very straight (with a bit of help from me) and looks very proud of his little bell.  He is a serious soul, but very cuddly with his beautiful long pile mohair.  I had to do some extensive repairs to his paws, practically having to replace the left one as can be seen if you look carefully at the photo.  He is probably my favourite of this group of Hermanns.  As with other damaged paws I tried to leave as much of the original fabric in place and just slip the new underneath and stitch in place with tiny invisible (I hope) stitches.

This is the last of the German bears to date.  I am not sure if this one is actually a Hermann bear, but he is definitely from that area of Germany, as there are many similarities in his design.  He is not mohair, but a soft plush which has cleaned and brushed up very well.

All of the above bears are available for sale in my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/PollysVintageBears

along with many other bears and vintage toys.

Restoring Chiltern Bear George - Part 1 of 2

I finally plucked up courage yesterday to start the restoring process on old George, a beautiful large Chiltern bear.
He is quite off colour, partly with being a bit dusty, partly to fading with age.  A dry bath should improve that, and soften his lovely mohair. 

His paws were the worst of any of the bears I have restored, with one of his foot pads virtually non-existent and the other 3 all needing work.

This pad was missing



Left paw



Right foot Replacement pad

I have pinned the new material in place, underneath what is remaining of the old paw pads.  The right foot pad had to be replaced altogether.  That meant I had to take the leg off to take the stuffing out, and turn it inside out to stitch the new one in place.  The Kapok was horrible to remove,  as it was old and really dusty it seemed to fly everywhere.  I was concerned about breathing it in, so wrapped a scarf around my nose and mouth while I was doing it, much to the amusement of my husband and son, who said I looked like a gangster.

Left foot pad

Right paw

Whilst I had the bear unpicked to remove the leg I took the opportunity to have a look at his voice box.  It was not a growler as I had thought, but an oval, double squeaker.  It was not working so I gently used a blunt wool sewing needle and tweezers to get the bits of wood wool and Kapok from inside it.  It still didn't work so I resealed the sides of the squeaker part with glue.  Still no noise.  The only thing left was to re tape the whole sides of the box as the coating had disintegrated, and was letting the air through.  A bit of thin masking tape did the trick, and when I pressed it there was a lovely loud squeak came from it.  Sounded more like a duck, we thought, than a bear but still I had got it working. 


Harry (left) and Sidney having a bad hair day

I spent a few minutes teasing Harry with it, as even though he is very deaf he seemed to be able to hear the squeak and kept listening with his head on one side, and turning to look at me every time I pressed it.





 

So now George is at the stage where he has a voice, and his stuffing is no longer in danger of falling out through holes in his paws.

The next step will be to fasten the paw repairs with very fine stitching, removing the pins as I go along.  That will be the difficult part done, all that will be left to do is a good clean, brushing and inserting new eyes.  Then we will see a beautiful old Chiltern bear looking back at us.




1920's Chiltern Bear Hubert

Hubert says "Hi"

Remember the big Chiltern bears that I showed you last week?  Well I have finally got around to restoring Hubert, the woodwool filled one (the other is mainly Kapok filled).
I originally thought he was a 1930's Chiltern Hugmee, but after doing some research today I believe him to be a 1920's Chiltern, before the Hugmees were produced.  The Hugmees were named that as they were soft and huggable,and Hubert is hard and woodwool filled.  The other is more a 1930's Hugmee with just his head filled with woodwool, the rest being soft Kapok.

Hubert had a few issues, the main one being his left paw which had a gaping hole in it.  When I got him he had a large bandage tied around the paw so I didn't know the extent of the damage until I removed it.

A very poorly paw

I searched my mohair odments and found a piece with a similar backing to his mohair to put a patch under the remaining paw fabric.  I always patch underneath to leave as much as the original fabric showing as possible. 

Looking much happier with his mended paw and full smile

Most of his black claw stitching was still there, just needed a couple of replacements and his smile was broken on one side, so that was quickly remeded. His paws used to have a velveteen surface, but none is left now, I just found slight evidence of it in his seams. It was a beige colour.
One of his feet had to have a small piece inserted too as the fabric had worn away a bit.


This foot had to have a small insert piece in the toe

The mended foot (new claws just visible)

The other foot and paw just needed a few stitches to prevent further damage and I had to attach one of his ears as it was coming adrift.

I felt his tummy and back and there was a hard object there - a growler?  I opened his back up and sure enough he had a large growler.  It was in remarkably good condition given his age so I shook it about a bit to get out any loose woodwool that may have settled in it.  The cloth piece had relaxed quite a bit I think so he will never give a long deep growl.  Now though he can give a little short grumble, especially if shaken a bit (not advisable to do that too much with a toy of this age).  I always like to get an old growler or squeaker working, even if not that well.

Here he is to date, just needing his new eyes and a teddy 'bath' and brush up.


A smiling Hubert, happy to know that
by tomorrow he will be able to see who
he is waving too!

I will show him in all his glory tomorrow.