One of the universal gifts of friendship is the teddy bear. I usually find old ones and either sell them to find those bears a new home or take a special bear that I might find and give it to a special friend.

Many folks take the Teddy Bear forgranted. "Why it's just a toy, it's just a stuffed animal"

    Tell that to an arctophile and see how far that statement gets you. Arctophily is the collecting of Teddy Bears. Where did that term come from? The term, literally meaning love or friend of bears, comes from the Greek word arktos , bear, and philos , friend. So what better representation of friendship than a Teddy Bear?

    Do you know that ' a hug of bears' is another term used by an arctophile. As with groups of animals, a collection of teddy bears now also has its own specific name: a hug. This descriptive word originates from the British actor Peter Bull, a keen arctophile and author of Bear with Me, and The Teddy Bear Book.

    So how did the Teddy Bear come about? There are two different explanations. The least know one is that this item was it was named after King Edward the VII of England, affectionately known as Ted - who,  a frequent visitor to the zoo, was reputed to take a particular interest in the bear.

     The more widespread notion is from the the United States. In 1901 , Theodore Roosevelt (nicknamed Teddy) became the president of the United States. In November 1902, he embarked on a four-day hunting expedition in Mississippi, during which he refused to shoot a bear cub that had been cornered for him.  Political cartoonist Clifford Berryman of The Washington Post captured this event in a the cartoon entitled ‘Drawing the line in Mississippi. which appeared in the Washington Post on November, 16 1902.

    Soon after the cartoons appearance, the Teddy Bear craze slowly develops. Morris Michtom, a Russian emigre, displayed a plush bear, made by his wife Rose and labeled it "Teddy Bear", in the window of his New York Store. It was an instant sucess. 

    Before World War I, Germany, during the late nineteenth century produced a stuffed toy bear on all fours,  possibly the Teddy Bears predecessor. The stuffed bear was usually set on cast iron wheels, on all fours and was rather popular. Germany was already a world leader in all aspects of the toy industry, from porcelain dolls, wooden animals and printed games, to tin boats and trains. Now they were becoming a leader in stuffed toys as well. For the stuffed toys, they  used  mohair plush  - a new fabric that had been developed to resemble real fur, woven from mohair, the wool of angora goats.

    So as the interest in Teddy Bears develops in the states during 1902, quietly in Germany, a company founded by Margarete Steiff, was developing a jointed bear-doll. Although these were unpopular at first, Herman Berg of the New York wholesalers George Borgfelt & Co. - prompted by the "Teddy" mania sweeping the US - bought 3,000 of these bear-dolls at the March 1903 Leipzig Toy Fair. The rest you know is history, for Steiff Bears are still sought after today, and have sold for huge sums of money.

    Peter Bull, the British actor and author who was credited with revitalizing the teddy-bear phenomenon in the 70's, once confessed that he was somewhat confused the the "sudden and quite sensational" popularity of the teddy bear. So what is the reason for their triumphant survival? Peter, who tried to explain the phenomenon, saying, "The mystique lies in the faces of the bears themselves. "

    As Rosemary Volpp and Paul E Volpp, who happen to have one of the largest collections of Teddy Bears in the World, said, "Look at the bears' faces; enjoy their faces." It is true; every teddy is, indeed, unique.

The enchantment and mystique will last forever.