Auction Review: Special Auction Services’ Teddy Bears of Witney Sale

Antique Teddy bears, especially those with fantastic provenance or rarity, continue to bring top dollar at auction. On December 3, 2024, Special Auction Services of Newbury in the United Kingdom presented its Teddy Bears of Witney Sale. This event featured an impressive collection of cubs and bear-related materials from the personal collection of Ian Pout, the founder of the legendary store Teddy Bears of Witney. This mecca opened its doors in 1985 and was the first retailer in the U.K. to specialize in antique to new Teddy bears. Pout’s inventory included celebrity bears as well as ephemera and materials related to some of the best-known Teddy bear fictional characters of the 20th century. 

Here are some highlights from this anything-but-bear-market sale. All prices noted include the seller’s premium.

The top lot in this sale was #155, a brown-tipped mohair Steiff Teddy bear named Happy. She was estimated at GBP 20,000 to £30,000. She sold for £56,250 and generated 19 bids. This fully-jointed 61 cm tall bear from 1926 featured many design details typical to her period of production, including oversized glass pupil eyes, long and soft mohair, a prominent and fuzzy muzzle, long limbs, and hand-embroidered claws and facial features. She retained her long trailing “f” style Steiff button-in-ear as her ID and was sold with a signed copy of the book The Happy-est Bear – A Biography. This book was written and self-published by Rosemary and Paul Volpp– the bear’s previous owners.

It is no surprise that this bear once again made international headlines. In 1989, she was sold at Sotheby’s in London for a new world record price of £55,000. The Volpps worked with a proxy to submit their bids; it is suspected that the underbidder was the British Royal Family. Paul bought Happy for Rosemary as an anniversary gift, which led to her name Happy, as in Happy Anniversary. Happy traveled the world with the Volpps as a goodwill ambassador and fundraiser for charities through 2000.

Bears with ties to popular culture also broke through at this important sale. Lot #45, Aloysius, was estimated at £20,000 to £30,000, sold for £32,500, and generated 12 bids. This 64 cm, fully-jointed golden blonde mohair bear was made in America around 1907. He was detailed with simple black glass eyes and felt paw pads and accessorized with a perfectly scaled Daks of London scarf and several decorative pins. Aloysius was sold with a collection of ephemera and related items to his role in the 1981 British TV series Brideshead Revisited, where he was featured as Lord Sebastian Flyte’s Teddy bear. This now legacy series was based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh and is credited in part with catalyzing the spike in Teddy bear collecting throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Aloysius belonged to British actor and author Peter Bull (1912 – 1984), who also had an impressive collection of Teddy bears. Aloysius was gifted to Bull by Euphemia Ladd from Maine. She mailed the bear to Bull across the pond, noting the bear’s prominent back hump which had developed as he sat on the shelf of her dry goods and grocery store for over four decades. Upon receipt, Bull renamed him Delicatessen in honor of his past. The producer of Brideshead Revisited selected Delicatessen from Bull’s collection to play the role of Aloysius, immediately catapulting him forever into the hearts and minds of bear lovers worldwide.

This Special Auction Services event featured a number of important pieces of ephemera related to Teddy bears. Lot #248, a letter and drawing from English artist and book illustrator Ernest Shepard (1879 – 1976), was estimated at £8,000 to £12,000 and sold for £17,500. These materials were from 1971 and included a two-sided handwritten letter, an addressed envelope, and an ink, pencil, and watercolor illustration of a standing bear holding a honey pot.

Ernest Shepard was best known for bringing to life the characters from the Winnie the Pooh series as well as the classic children’s tale The Wind in the Willows. He based his design for Pooh on a Teddy bear named Growler from his own collection. This bear was called Growler because he had a very loud embedded noisemaker in his belly. The letter and illustration were sent to Miss Karena Elphinstone, who had reached out to Shepard by mail to tell him about the history of her Teddy bear named Emma. He responded to her note, penning this letter which gave a full accounting of the history of his Growler and how he became the basis for his interpretation of Winnie the Pooh.

Antique toy novelties featuring Teddy bears in all forms caught the eyes of arctophiles. Lot #148, a Schuco Teddy Bear roller toy, was estimated at £600 to £800 and traded hands at £4,500. This 1920s toy was comprised of a fully-jointed rose pink mohair Teddy bear behind the wheel of a green lithographed tinplate tricycle with a steering wheel. The toy featured a friction drive mechanism and was activated by moving the wheels along a flat surface. This exact example was featured in Pout’s 1996 book, Some of Our Favourite Bears.

Schuco began making toys in the early 1900s and is especially known today for its early prewar clockwork cars, trucks, and other playthings, such as this tricycle. Schuco also produced petitely scaled Teddy bear novelties, including perfume vials, tape measures, compacts, and snuff bottles, often in jewel-toned mohair. These bears had metal heads, limbs, and torsos and were covered in plush, making them extremely durable. This delightfully hued roller toy– the best of the Teddy bear and vehicle worlds– called to Teddy bear, tin toy, novelty, and Schuco collectors, which might help to explain its impressive final price and why it generated 35 bids.

This sale rounded out with fine vintage to antique bears made by companies including Steiff, Chiltern, Dean’s Rag Book, Farnell, Bing, Ideal, Terrys, and Cramer, as well as first edition books, photographs, Teddy Bears of Witney store materials, and other Teddy treats related to famous fictional cubs. Lot #286, an original pen, ink, and watercolor illustration of Paddington bear by British artist Fred Banbery (1913 – 1999) was estimated at £400 to £600 and sold for £5,000. This example from 1975 was titled Please Look After This Bear; a version of this illustration was used on the back cover of Michael Bond’s beloved Paddington Bear, which was published in London by Collins in 1975.

For more information on Special Auction Services’ December 3, 2024 Teddy Bears of Witney Auction, visit LiveAuctioneers. 

Looking for more Teddy bear auction news? Check out Auction Daily’s recent coverage of the Japan Teddy Bear Association’s 34th Japan Teddy Bear With Friends Convention Charity Auction.