Bear Sweet

Bear Sweet

Teddy Bears by Chad Valley

In 1850, two brothers, Joseph and Alfred Johnson, began a business together in George Street, Birmingham, the business was called Johnson Brothers.  The speciality of the business was mainly in stationery.  However, in 1897, Joseph Johnson, who by this time was running the business with his son, moved to new premises in the village of Harborne, near Birmingham, at this point the business changed it's name to Johnson Brothers Harborne, at the same time the factory was known as the Chad Valley Works, after the Chad Valley stream which runs through the village.

In 1897, the company trademarked ‘Chad Valley' as their name to market toys and some cardboard games.  Not long after, Chad Valley started to produce soft toys.

In 1969, Chad Valley took over the famous soft toy company, Chiltern, another soft toy/teddy bear manufacturer and once again they moved premises, this time to Pontypool in Wales.

Sadly, due to the 1970's soft toy recession, the company was taken over by Pallitoy.  In 1988, Woolworths bought the Chad Valley name and they moved their soft toy production to the Far East.

Chad Valley produced some wonderful Teddy Bears and these days there are lots of Chad Valley Teddy Bears living in collections around the world.  The first Teddy Bear produced by Chad Valley appeared in their catalogue in 1914 – 1915.  This Teddy Bear came in three sizes and came in five different fabrics.

Chad Valley Teddy Bears can be quite easily identified, having some very distinguishable characteristics:

• Early Chad Valley Teddy Bears are fully jointed and stuffed with kapok.  However, some very early examples are stuffed with cork;
• Early Bears have a celluloid ID button in either an ear or in their upper torso;
• Very early Teddy Bears have eyes made of large amber and black glass;
• Chad Valley Teddy Bears have big ears, often sewn over the facial seams;
• Earlier Teddy Bears have triangular shaped noses with vertical stitching while later Teddy Bears (1938 onwards) have a wide rectangular nose (called a ‘bound' nose) with vertical stitching.

A famous Chad Valley Teddy Bear is a little bear from the 1950's called Toffee.  Toffee was based on a wonderful character from the famous television series called ‘Listen With Mother.'  Toffee wore a little red knitted hat and scarf.  Made circa. 1954, the sweet little Toffee Teddy Bear is very collectible and is quite hard to find these days,  but beware, as there are a number of fakes on the market.  Another British Teddy Bear Company called Farnell also made their own version of Toffee Bear.

At the height of it's success Chad Valley was granted the Royal Warrant of Appointment in 1938, as toy makers to Her Majesty the Queen.  Indeed, after 1938, the Chad Valley labels carried the royal coat of arms with the words "Toy Makers to Her Majesty the Queen" written on them.  After the coronation of Elizabeth 11 in 1953, the words changed to "Queen Mother."

In addition to Teddy Bears, Chad Valley produced a variety of soft toy animals and felt dolls (which included the ever popular Mabel Lucie-Attwell doll made in the 1920's).  Like many other manufacturers, they too, produced pandas after the first Panda was introduced to London Zoo.

Chad Valley also held the rights to produce British comedian Harry Corbett's glove puppet Sooty in 1952.  They continued producing it well into the 1980's.

The first Sooty was bought by Harry Corbett from an old lady on Blackpool Pier.  Corbett blackened the nose and ears with soot, hence the famous Teddy Bear's name, Sooty. 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

Gino loves fast cars, especially fast italian cars.  Gino also loves anything Italian. Gino also heads an old teddy bear site which is full of adorable old teddy bears and their friends.

Please visit his website at www.ginosbears.co.uk

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