Teddy Bears in History
1894 German toy company Gebruder Sussenguth show a stuffed bear toy in their catalogue.
1897 Bear skittles and roly‑poly toy bears feature in the Steiff catalogue and the Steiff company takes its own stand at the Leipzig toy fair.
1899 Margarete Steiff registers patents for 23 of her soft toy designs, including a dancing bear and a bear handler with a brown bear.
1902 November. Morris Michtom sells the first Teddys Bear in his Brooklyn shop.
1903 March. Steiff Company sells 3000 of its toy bears in America.
1906 May. First advertisement for plush bear toys, still called Bruins, in the American toy trade magazine Playthings.
1906 November. First advertisement using the words Teddy Bear, by American manufacturer E.J. Horsman, in the American toy trade magazine Playthings.
1907 Deans Rag Book Company publishes Teddy Bear, by Alice Scott, illustrated by Sybil Scott Paley.
1907 Seymour Eaton publishes The Roosevelt Bears newspaper strip in book form (USA)
1907 Music of the famous song, The Teddy Bears Picnic, written by American composer J.K. Bratton. Originally called The Teddy Bear Two Step.
1908 Deans Rag Book Company advertises cut out and sew teddy bears in Home Chat magazine.
1908 Large plush bear, unidentified, appears in a Deans advertisement.
1908 J.K. Farnell company makes the first British teddy bears.
1909 First animated teddy‑bear cartoon, Little Johnny and the Teddy Bears,
1911 The Bruin Boys first appearance in Arthur Mees Childrens Encyclopaedia.
1912 Steiff create black teddy bears to give as mourning gifts after the sinking of the Titanic.
1915 Deans advertise plush teddy bears, in their Kuddlemee toys catalogue.
1919 First non‑stop Atlantic flight by teddy bears when aviation pioneers Alcock and Brown take teddy bear mascots with them on record breaking flight.
1919 First British comic‑strip teddy bear character, Bobby Bear, published in the Daily Herald
1920 First Rupert Bear picture story, Little Lost Bear, written and illustrated by Mary Tourtel, appears in the UK newspaper, The Daily Express.
1921 German company Schuco patent the Yes/No bear
1921 J.K. Farnell set up the Alpha works, making bears designed by Cybil Kent.
1924 First colour animation film with a teddy bear theme when Walt Disney produces Alice and the Three Bears
1926 First Edition of Winnie‑the‑Pooh by A.A. Milne, published.
1930 First teddy bears made by UK firm Merrythought with designs by Florence Atwood
1930 Lyrics of The Teddy Bears Picnic written by Jimmy Kennedy and set to the original music written in 1907.
1938 H.M. Queen Elizabeth grants a Royal Warrant to British teddy bear makers Chad Valley.
1944 Smokey Bear adopted as the mascot of the United States Forest Fire Prevention Campaign.
1948 'Biffo' The Bear appears for the first time in The Beano
1952 First appearance of Sooty, the teddy bear glove puppet and magician, on British television.
1953 Steiff celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Steiff bears with a new style bear, a comical young bear cub, called Jackie Baby.
1954 Wendy Boston, Welsh toy maker, produces the first truly washable teddy bear.
1958 Publication of the first Paddington story, A Bear Called Paddington, by Michael Bond.
1959 Walt Disney acquire the rights to Winnie‑the‑Pooh.
1962 Colonel Bob Henderson launches The Teddy Bear Club
1962 Margaret Baker publishes The Shoe Shop Bears
1969 Peter Bull publishes Bear With Me (USA The Teddy Bear Book)
1969 Jim Ownby launches the charity Good Bears of the World.
1975 Walt Disneys first animated film of Winnie‑the‑Pooh appears.
1979 Peter Bull designs his traditionally styled Bully Bears for House of Nisbet.
1979 Marquis of Bath organises the Great Teddy Bear Rally at Longleat.
1981 Peter Bulls 1907 American bear, Delicatessen, stars in the television adaptation of Evelyn Waughs novel Brideshead Revisited.
1985 Christies of London hold the first ever teddy bear only auction.
1988 Gyles and Michele Brandreth found The Teddy Bear Museum in William Shakespeares home town of Stratford upon Avon
1989 First British Teddy Bear Festival held in London.
1989 Happy Anniversary, a 1926 tipped mohair Steiff bear, is sold at auction in London for ,55,000 to American Paul Volpp as a 42nd wedding anniversary gift for his wife, Rosemary.
1990 First Steiff UK Limited Edition.
1990 Hermann Teddy Original 75th Anniversary Limited Edition
1990 Merrythought Diamond Jubilee Limited Edition.
1994 Teddy Girl, a 1904 cinnamon Steiff bear formerly owned by Colonel Bob Henderson, is sold at auction in London for ,110,000 to Yoshihiro Sekiguchi, founder of the Teddy Bear Museum in Izu, Japan.
1996 Teddy Edward, the worlds most travelled bear, is bought at auction by Yoshihiro Sekiguchi of the Izu Teddy Bear Museum for ,34,500
1998 Guinness (8.5 mm tall), made by Lynn Lumb of Halifax, England, enters The Guinness Book of Records as the worlds smallest teddy bear.
