For the first ten years of researching my old bear face, I searched all over this computer, book stores and library's without any luck. January of 2010 comes and I began searching for my old bears manufacturer. By comparing my bears body style and body parts. I remember reading about early Ideal bears had the turkey leg look, like a drumstick. Weeks go by and I realize my old bear compares very close to the famous Smithsonian bear, not the face just the body style! Reading more about the earliest teddy bears were made very stiff, jointed, mohair, glass eyes etc. Why this describes my bear. With my focus on early Ideal bears. In my books I see pictures of very early Ideal bears with this little red felt tongue peeping out of this small mouth. I was puzzled. Today I can say after researching thousands of web pages, researching in many books and lets no forget the tens of thousands of early teddy bear pictures that have been posted on Ebay over the past years.. Morris and Rose michtom were innovators of their time! from the get go they were very good at changing faces and body styles on their bears. It takes a very keen eye to see the resemblance. It's like looking at both parents of a child. One can see features of the father and mother in their child. Same way with style of old teddy bears. In 2003 the U.S. printed teddy bear stamps in honor of the 100 year anniversary of the Teddy Bear and of course there is a stamp of a 1905, Ideal bear. Well I can see this stamp resembles my old bears face. But again my old bear has more details in his face because he is older. I have a very early undocumented Ideal bear! I have much more documentation to prove my story. This is turning out to be the hardest challenge of my life but I will not give up! So I am reaching out to the public. The proof I have is called, intellectual properties. No one has ever uncovered documentation as I have, only because I have the bear. Attorneys demand $250. an hour, with no end. I can't afford this. I am willing to collaborate with the right people to get this bear of mine documented and donated to the Smithsonian!
