Teddy Bear Museum For Sale

A teddy bear museum, home to a thousand teddy bears from all over the world, is up for sale.

The collection has been built up by teddy bear fan Gyles Brandreth, who has been collecting bears since he was a child and opened his museum in 1988.

Gyles (seen here with furry friend Fozzie Bear) works as a writer and TV presenter and is so busy these days that he thinks it's time to let someone else look after the museum.

"We want to find new owners for the Museum who will love it as much as we do," he says.

© Christie's Images Ltd 2006

The Teddy Bear Museum is in Stratford-upon-Avon, housed in a building which used to belong to King Henry VIII.

Lynton, a bear belonging to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, recently spent his summer holidays at the museum. ('Lynton' is one of Mr Blair's middle names.)

© Christie's Images Ltd 2006

No-one is sure who made the first cuddly bear, but the first official 'teddy' bear was made in 1902 in America by Morris and Rose Mitchom, owners of a New York sweet shop.

The US President, Theodore Roosevelt, whose nickname was 'Teddy', had been in the newspapers for refusing to shoot a wounded bear whilst out on a bear hunt.

The Mitchoms wrote to President Roosevelt and got his permission to call their bear 'Teddy's Bear' (it's now in an American museum).

The new toy became so popular that within a year the Mitchoms closed their sweet shop and founded a toy company, which today is one of the largest in the world.

Around the same time, a German toy company called Steiff began making stuffed toy bears. The Teddy Bear Museum in Stratford-upon-Avon has a Steiff bear from 1904, who is one of the oldest bears in the world. Gyles calls him Growler, even though no-one's heard him growl!

The museum's Teddy Bear Hall of Fame features famous bears and bears owned by famous people, including the original Fozzie Bear from The Muppets, Sooty, Super Ted and Paddington Bear, seen here reclining in his armchair.

© Christie's Images Ltd 2006

Do you have a collection? We'd love to hear about it - and even see a photo of it.

We asked the Show Me team what they collected when they were younger... and the answers included shells, badges, football cards, stuff about trains, pencils, music magazines, postcards, coins and old cameras.

We reckon that Show Me readers will have even more weird and wonderful collections, so Get In Touch and tell us all about them.

Maybe one day your collection will be so big you'll open a museum and we'll write about it on Show Me!