Animal Crackers Originals

I've been creating toys for almost 25 years. My bears were quite traditional and I found myself feeling rather bored by them. I took a break from making bears and instead concentrated on making other mohair animals, such as dogs, elephants, horses, birds and monkeys. I love children's book illustrations from the 1920's, and 30's and found myself drawn to the bright colors and whimsical styles.

Mohair fabric just isn't available in those primary colors, so I tried dying some mohair and was delighted with the results. The Goofie Bears were born! They are traditional in many ways - mohair, excelsior filled, jointed with glass eyes, but with a twist. Many have jointed arms and stationery legs. Others are dressed with silly little jackets and pants pulled up way too high. Most have big cartoon eyes and are hand tinted to look lovingly aged. I love it when people walk into my booth or studio and just start laughing. I'm having great fun making these guys and hope you enjoy them too.

Vintage Toys

I have loved and collected vintage mohair toys for many years. The excellent quality of toys made by companies such as Steiff, Hermann, Knickerbocker, Chad Valley, Schuco, Pedigree and Merrythought make them terrific investments. Vintage bears and other animals have continued to dramatically increase in value over the last few years. Older bears in mint condition are hard to find and usually very expensive. However, there are still very affordable bears to be found in "played with" condition.

The majority of early plush toys are made of mohair fabric. Mohair is made from the shorn fleece of angora goats. The only mills capable of the complicated process of weaving the mohair plush fabric used for toys are in Germany and England. Mohair is quite a sturdy fabric. When old mohair toys from the the 30's, 40's and 50's are compared to more modern toys made of synthetic plush from the 70's and 80's, the older toy are usually in much better condition. However, vintage mohair toys are subject to insect damage. Sometimes I will come across a no-hair mohair bear. The moths have feasted on the mohair, leaving only the cotton backing. While moth damage certainly reduces the value, these pieces are often still quite charming and collectible.

Vintage toys which still retain the manufactures labels or buttons usually command a higher price. Steiff has published several "Sortiment" books which beautifully document their products. Even if a toy no longer has it's button or tag, it is usually easy to confirm whether or not it was manufactured by Steiff. Sometimes, however, it is simply not possible to determine the manufacturer. Many early bears and other animals were not marked and you must compare features such as body shape, mohair type, nose style or paw pad material to determine the maker.

Many of these older toys which I am offering for sale do show some wear and I will try to describe them as accurately as possible and list any repairs that have been made. I usually find the well loved toys to be more charming that the mint toys (poor things, they were never played with). Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the vintage toys.