The Teddy Bear Craze

The golden age of teddy bears lasted from 1903 right up to the start of World War II. Teddies were hugely well loved, a craze on the scale of Beanie Babies or Pokemon, and all who was anyone had a teddy, especially upper-class ladies and their children, and as they were still relatively expensive toys they were treated with fantastic care and pride.

Teddies could not yet be reliably and cheaply manufactured, and so were hand-made, artisan objects. German and American companies stepped teddy bear manufacture into high gear, but the Germans' long experience in toymaking meant that their bears were of much higher quality and for a lower price than the Americans could manage. German diligence quickly came to dominate the worldwide teddy bear diligence - but then, unfortunately, fell headlong into World War I.

The war allowed the American teddy diligence to recover and grow to many times its before size, as America was scarcely caught up in the fighting - but, irreverently, the Fantastic Depression a few years later nearly killed off the diligence in America, at which point most teddy manufacturing went back to Germany. The Germans were even more innovative with their bears this time, making teddies that could do all sorts of tricks, counting dancing and before a live audience small tunes.

The reason that World War II is the end of the golden age is that it finished teddy manufacturing pretty much everywhere, but also led to the enhancement of equipment that could be used to mass-manufacture teddies. When teddy bears came back after the war, they were no longer hand-made, but were mass-bent in automated factories. These bears were made from artificial equipment so that they could be apparatus-washed, with plastic eyes and foam stuffing. Worse, manufacturing went completely to the East, where factories could churn them out at a part of the price. As teddy bears got cheaper, they became even more well loved, but the quality of the teddy would never quite be the same again.

Author: John Gibb
Condition Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Beading Necklace