Billy Bear after his clean up

After his obligatory stay in my freezer, Billy was given a facelift - new amber glass eyes, a newly stitched nose and his ears were re-attached firmly.  His back seam was re-done neatly and then he had a 'bran bath'.
I sat him in the bran and started to rub it over him, murmuring "I really don't believe this will work".  But it did (Oh thee of little faith!) and he now is beautifully clean and his fur feels really soft.  The bran was a nightmare to brush and hoover out of his mohair though.

He will be coming to the craft shop with me tomorrow to sit on my work table and hopefully draw in some customers.  I am not sure if the doll shop on the site sells vintage bears so I will be checking it out tomorrow with a view to stocking some myself if not.  I don't want to tread on anyones toes but would love to stock more of these lovely old characters.  I think I may have got the 'old bear' bug now as it was a great feeling to bring Billy back to a clean state.

He is in my Etsy shop now for sale.  As he is my first vintage bear I have had to do some research to try to find his value and have set his price according to my findings. 
After trawling through the internet I have decided that he is not German but is most likely to be a Chiltern Hugmee (English) bear from between 1930-1940.  He has the 'drumstick' legs that are mentioned and is filled with kapok and woodwool.  During that period Chiltern only had cardboard labels so not many of those survived.  I can find no evidence of a label having been stitched to his seams or glued onto his paws.  His paws are rexine which dates him after 1930 so he would not be an earlier bear.

Here he is in before and after photos.  He is a lovely soft gold colour now he is clean and is so huggable.

                 

       

                 

"Yippee!  I feel great"