A childhood favourite has reached a ripe old age - the teddy bear is 100 years old.

The toy was first created in 1902 and was named after the then president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt.

Historians agree the teddy bear got its name when ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt, as the 26th president was nicknamed, was on a hunting trip in Mississippi. The president failed to make a kill and so his hosts caught a bear, presenting it to him as a target. He refused to shoot it, saying: “Spare the bear”.
His action was immortalised in a Washington Post cartoon and, consequently, a pair of New York shopkeepers, Morris and Rose Michtom, made a soft toy bear they called Teddy’s Bear. The toy were an immediate success.

At the same time, a factory in Germany owned by seamstress Margarete Steiff began making a soft plush, jointed bear - with a trademark button in the left ear.

In 1903, the company exported 3,000 bears to America.

“Steiff was always the most expensive and is consequently the most valuable now.”

Everyone has nostalgic memories about their stuffed teddy bears.

 

                  

      A German teddy bear from around 1954       Steiff bears from 1903 and 1905