The Elephant’s Curios

Somewhere in the world, perhaps above our heads, or under our feet;  perhaps beneath floor boards or secreted under insulation, OR in the dark, damp corners of a cardboard boxes packed away in old sheds; or stuffed roughly into recycling banks, are the bears of my dreams.

Often I find myself wishing I knew where they were all hidden, I wish I could find them all and tell their stories to the world. Where are those secret places – the places where all the old toys are hidden?

The holy grail of bears – where is it? Will Dan Brown write a book about THAT? – I don’t think so.

I’m not going to lie to you. I like an online auction as much as the next person but it seems nowadays online sellers are becoming savvy to the fact that an old bear, despite its condition, is a fruitful thing.

I am fed up of seeing 1980s teddy bears being sold as ‘Steiff bears dating from 1902’ – come on people! The amount of rubbish and fanciful tales you have to sift through to find a sweet bear you aren’t going to have to re-mortgage your house for is just getting silly.

In this case however, on this one particular day in winter I was very surprised to not have to sift through the lies and fanciful tales when I happened to read ‘Antique toy elephant’ No more, no less.

I wasn’t really looking for an elephant but here was a seller who had just bought a few old toys from a house clearance (he said it was because he didn’t want to see them go in the bin). He had listed them very honestly and dear old elephant was listed at the very sensible price of eight pounds. The elephant itself was riddled with bugs, his tusks were hanging off, he was holey and faded and the wire in his ears had come out through his body. The very same ears were hanging off by a thread and he only had one eye. His legs were so bowed they had almost bent in on themselves and his tail appeared to be stained with rust – it was love.

Despite all of the aforementioned woes, this little ele’ seemed to hold some kind of power over me and I happily clicked the bid button and away we went.  Seeing as the elephant was so reasonably priced I decided to have a look through the seller’s other items, to see if the Holy Grail could perhaps be there. And do you know what reader – it sort-of was!

I carefully scrolled through the strange collection of items that were listed for sale by the elephant’s gentleman owner: an elderly copper coal scuttle, blackened at the base with the curved handle in a state of collapse. A turned wood darning mushroom once lovingly painted in pale yellow with tiny pink flowers that were now flaking off to reveal the beautiful patina of the wood beneath. A welsh wool blanket woven in chestnut brown and russet red, the label once bearing its pattern name and the location in which it was made now a filthy grey rag hanging like a useless flap of skin. Finally a rusty green ww2 army helmet with a rather macabre bullet hole to the temple – a horrible reminder of the brutality of war and the tokens its soldiers once collected as keepsakes.

Beneath these rather strange items I found a lovely, REALLY sweet little dog and a bear that really has to be a Dean’s rag book bear.

Would you like to see?

I happily bid and won both of these items and of course the elephant.

Does the dog not have the most wonderful character?

The bear is so large I wonder if it may have been used as a display item at one point in the past? It very much resembles a Dean’s Rag Book bear that was produced in the exact same style but was very, very much smaller. I believe all of these old chaps to date to around the late 1920s – mid 1930s

I haven’t yet had the time to restore these fellows as so far 2014 has been a whirl of hospital trips and walking down the road to recovery – but I fully plan to restore them to the best of my ability and to put them in my new cabinet..

Cabinet – What do you mean Edward, what are you babbling about now??

Ahh, well faithful reader, dear friend and confidante, I have been a busy bear whilst I have been away ailing. I have purchased the right to rent a little cabinet space in an antiques store, and I will be showcasing and selling my bears and my wares in said cabinet as of March 2014!

What say I tell you more about that another time? For now I have business cards to be made and props to buy. Will you follow me in my future adventures of antiques, bears and friends? – I do hope so.

I would lastly like to say thank-you to all of you sweet and kind people who take the time to pop by and read my ramblings, and a big HELLO to my new readers (waving) I am most grateful for your support and interest and I hope to pop by twice a month (at the very least) with updates, how-to features and to introduce you to my new friends and tell you my tales.

Until the next time, dear friends,

Edward x