Bear with Butterfly

Do you know the story of how the original Teddy Bear came into being? Back in 1902, a cartoonist depicted President Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt’s refusal to shoot a captured bear while hunting in Mississippi. If that hadn’t happened, we may not be looking at this little guy here. This adorable bear, signed by Annalee, is a classic. He is missing his butterfly, which you can tell from his expression was bringing him/her so much joy, but that does not distract from the pure adorability the little guy oozes! He is also missing his original vest/jacket and note his attached nose that just doesn’t quite seem in line with the rest of his face. If you look very carefully under this nose, you can see some painted detailing which may suggest that the nose he has now was not the original one. This bear is in wonderful condition, apart from a small hole starting to appear on the top of his leg.

He has a mass of toffee colored synthetic fur hair, (the synthetic fur was used for hair from the early 1960’s up to the present day). Another thing to note is that on this bear, you will see that the neck is completely covered and finished with felt. If you compare this to the early dolls of the 50’s and 60’s, you will see that the neck, if there was one, was covered by a separate piece of felt but it was not attached to the body or the head, giving the doll a less finished appearance. This bear originally retailed at $10.50 back in 1973.

Annalee Timeline 1970’s

This decade also saw the end of the red nose on the reindeer line and for support we saw the complete round wire base used for dolls.

View more Annalee Dolls animal designs!