My very old teddy is just back from 'hospital'!

Ye gods, I named my first baby the same name as my doll had, she was not called "Beauty Skin"!

lovely story about your teaset Maywalk

I love your tea set, maywalk; a perfect family heirloom. Here is a photo of our old lad (no not DH - he's the other old lad!). Held together by a pair of tights and a lot of love, but he still has his growl.

Here's Brumas, who's at least 65 - he was made to celebrate the birth of his namesake, who was the first polar bear cub to be born at London Zoo, in 1949, a week after me. As you can see, he would feel so much better if he were able to access some skilled restoration! The original Brumas was female but all my stuffed animals, not to mention the various animal ornaments I've acquired over the years, have been 'he', used in the now disfavoured style, to encompass both sexes when that characteristic isn't an issue. I have an anatomically questionable stuffed tortoise which is really supposed to be a nightdress case and has a smaller stuffed tortoise inside the zipped pouch. Such a creature doesn't exist in real life, but is unquestionably 'she', because she's a mummy, of course.

Thanks Witzend. It will certainly be staying in the family. My brother died many years ago but it's a lovely memento from him.
It is unbelievable really to think that the tea set survived the London Blitz and yet we had been bombed out twice. If it had a voice it could tell many tales.

What a lovely tea set, Maywalk! Amazing that it's survived so long! And what a lovely brother to have saved his pennies to buy it for you!

Many thanks Wot.
Here it is in all its glory after being glued together during WW2 still going strong after going through all the bombing.

Oh, Maywalk, I love your post! How nice that you've still got the tea set in the family.

My teddy is 68. I spoiled him as soon as I got him at age 3 by trimming his hair short. His pads have been replaced several times and he's got buttons instead of his original eyes.
Did anyone else have a Pedigree "Beauty skin" doll? Mine came in about 1953 and was so pretty, I loved her dearly and named my first baby after her.

Never had a Teddy when I was young because I was born in 1930 during the Great Depression but my older brother had saved any farthings a half pennies given to him if he had done errands for those better off and bought me a dolls tea set from East Lane market the week I was born. I never played with it because I went into a Sisters of Mercy home to be looked after due to contacting pneumonia when I was 6 months old. My parents did not have the money to pay the fee for hospital care way back then but when I finally went home to my family in 1936 that tea set was played with every day. It went all through the London Blitz and finished up with me when evacuated in 1941 to the Midlands. It now takes pride of place in my lovely d-i-ls glass cabinet and it's now 86 years old. I have a photo of it on my computer if anyone would like to see it.

I've still got my teddies too - the oldest one was given to me when I was one and is very threadbare and also has one paw all raggy as I used to suck it when I was little. I was given a new bear for my fifth birthday and still have him too. They're both upstairs in a cupboard sadly neglected with other soft toys I've collected over the years. I also still have a rabbit and a monkey which were my sons bought on a family holiday when they were young - they're both very flat and obviously much used. I've no idea what will happen to them when I'm gone but hope someone gives them a good home. Your refurbished teddy looks very smart with his new bow

Our daughter, now in her 40s, has kept the teddy that I made when they were all little. Even though only the head remains now.
She calls him Sevvy from the book A Severed Head.

He looks like one of the older style Steiff (sp?) teddies; I had one and lost him, sadly. Yours does look so smart - they have made a good job of him and I bet he's grateful.

I would be so interested to know if any of you own a Farnell teddy bear. My Dad was part owner of little company called Farnells for all of his working life - it was what we would call today a cottage industry, ladies working from home - some cut the shapes from the plush, other stuffed them, other sewed in the ears and the eyes etc.

I can only ever remember him being in the toy business - always lots of soft cuddly toys around the house, and my Dad had that smiling gentle happy disposition that was a perfect match for a man who spent his life with teddy bears. Farnell teddy bears were sold in toy shops everywhere - they were lovely cuddly bears with pretty faces - all different sizes, button eyes, squeaky tummies and jointed limbs. My brother, who is 78 still has his and I still have two - but my daughter has them now.

Would love to know if any of you still have a Farnell bear in your life.

One of my teddies called Susie was meant for my baby sister who died at three months old. On my third birthday Susie was then given to me. Susie who was my favourite is now over 61, my mother often repaired one of her arms. Susie was joined later by Penny, a smaller walkie talkie doll, Cubby a boy teddy and Alice a larger walkie talkie doll.

Except for Suzy and her bung arm they were all in good condition until last year when my youngest GS was being silly and swung Alice by the arm which is now detached from her body. Sadly the dolls hospital is long gone, so Alice will have to wait until I can find someone to repair her.

Some of my GC when staying ask me to take the dolls out of the bedroom they are sleeping in. The teddies and dolls are usually lying in another bedroom covered up with a blanket so they don't get cold.

My bisque head baby doll Billy boy is 86 years old and wears an outfit I knitted for him 30 years ago. He sits on the chest of drawers in my bedroom. I have a large collection of teddies which I collected on my journeys the world and some of my mothers as well as those which my son gives me on Mother's Day and birthdays.

I think there will always be a few 'best loveds' , Pamish.. At least I hope so. Dds had masses, with a few best-loveds, but we were not allowed to get rid of any of them until they were long grown up. We still have quite of few of theirs, but dh recently took a load of the others to Battersea Dogs' Home. I was surprised that they wanted them, but a lot of dogs do like carrying soft toys around or cuddling up to them, even if they may eventually chew them up!
Far better than just chucking them, anyway.

Witzend, he looks just like my teddy. He is 54, has lost his growl and has foot rot.Could never part with him though-he knows EVERYTHING!!

Now you can get an enormous stuffed toy for a fiver and kids' rooms have piles and piles of them, i wonder how many will be loved with such ferocity in 60 years' time?

When I was a child, I remember a doll being sent off to the dolls hospital ( there was less money about for buying new dolls then) and I imagined it being in a bed in a ward.I had been in hospital myself a few times as a child, so felt sorry for dolly.

Auntieflo yes the dolls.hospital was very important, what lovely idea.. I used to like looking inside the heads and finding out how the eye movements worked and of course cutting the hair which never grew back.....heyho sorry to distract from teddys.

Bohemian, there are still lots of dolls'/teddies hospitals! We just googled to find them.

I emailed one some time ago about two very old dolls that came from an aunt's house after she died - nobody else wanted them! They are both in a state with arms and legs fallen off etc. Still haven't got around to sending them or asking for a quote.

For teddy we emailed a photo first.

I went to Ridgeway Craft Centre Sheffield a couple of years ago with mine but he would have to be sent away .I just couldn't do it .

Witzend, how very cute! And he does have a nice new ribbon.

Auntieflo I think the little black dolls were called 'Mambo" dolls.

I lived in South London as a child in the 1950's and remember my beloved 'Betty' doll (a 'mama' doll) losing all her hair (it was brown, curly human hair, and I probably pulled it out!). She was packed off to a Dolls Hospital, and I spent a fraught week worrying about her, I wasn't even allowed to visit her, even though I begged my mum. She returned boasting a head of glossy blonde curls. Not long after she went back and had an eye replaced. I've still got her, she's bald again but I'm pretty sure there's no longer any Dolls Hospitals I can take her to