Parks Stephenson
Member
I have read Polar the Titanic Bear to my kids. I have my own Steiff Polar bear, which my 3-year-old insists on playing with (much to her dad's consternation). I ran across the following related article in Toy Shop magazine and thought I would share:
<FONT COLOR="0000FF">LONDON - It was a somber story that accompanied the piece de resistance of Christie's South Kensington's Dec. 4 sale of rare teddy bears.
Lot 253, the last item in the auction, represented one of only 600 black Steiff bears exported to England in May 1912 as a symbol of mourning after the R.M.S. Titanic sank in the chilly waters of the North Atlantic. There was scarcely a prominent family in Britain that had not lost either a relative or friend in the disaster, and unfortunately, the great uncle of the bear's consigning owner had been among the more than 1,500 passengers who perished.
As a child, the bear's owner had taken an immediate dislike to the toy, so it had been tucked away in a closet where it remained untouched for the next 90 years. This explains why the piece survived for nearly a century to emerge in exceptionally fine condition.
It was widely believed amongst experts in the field of teddies that no other example of the Steiff Titanic bear had been offered publicly since 1990, prompting worldwide interest prior to Christie's sale.
The sad-faced, 19-1/2-inch "mourning bear," all original with button in ear and the remains of a white Steiff tag intact, was estimated to sell for $22,000 to $30,000. It proved its worth as the headlining bear in the $450,000 auction when it finished its run at an incredible $136,000.
Parks
<FONT COLOR="0000FF">LONDON - It was a somber story that accompanied the piece de resistance of Christie's South Kensington's Dec. 4 sale of rare teddy bears.
Lot 253, the last item in the auction, represented one of only 600 black Steiff bears exported to England in May 1912 as a symbol of mourning after the R.M.S. Titanic sank in the chilly waters of the North Atlantic. There was scarcely a prominent family in Britain that had not lost either a relative or friend in the disaster, and unfortunately, the great uncle of the bear's consigning owner had been among the more than 1,500 passengers who perished.
As a child, the bear's owner had taken an immediate dislike to the toy, so it had been tucked away in a closet where it remained untouched for the next 90 years. This explains why the piece survived for nearly a century to emerge in exceptionally fine condition.
It was widely believed amongst experts in the field of teddies that no other example of the Steiff Titanic bear had been offered publicly since 1990, prompting worldwide interest prior to Christie's sale.
The sad-faced, 19-1/2-inch "mourning bear," all original with button in ear and the remains of a white Steiff tag intact, was estimated to sell for $22,000 to $30,000. It proved its worth as the headlining bear in the $450,000 auction when it finished its run at an incredible $136,000.
Parks
