If your looking for a present idea for the festive season maybe a teddy bear would be just the right thing and starting a collection a pleasure to carry on into the future. I found this lovely Steiff teddy bear on the net ( pictured below) c.1950's priced at £195 .Steiff a German toy company was begun in 1880 by Margarete Steiff, later assisted by her brother Fritze. The toys began as elephants, which were originally a design Margarete Steiff found in a magazine and sold as pincushions to her friends. However, children began playing with them, and in the years following she went on to design many other successful toys for children, such as dogs, cats and pigs.The Steiff's nephew Richard joined in 1897 and created the teddy bear in 1902. In 1907, Steiff manufactured 974,000 bears, and has been increasing its output ever since. The Steiff company motto, "Only the best is good enough for children". The famed "button in ear" was devised by Margarete's nephew Franz in 1904, to keep counterfeits from being passed off as authentic. At the Saint Louis World's Fair in 1904, the Steiffs sold 12,000 bears and received the Gold Medal.
