MUSICAL BEAR - 12 INCHES

by Alice
(Essex, UK)

I bought him from Etsy in a poor state. He was grubby, his chipped foam stuffing had perished and as a result 'grit' was dropping out of him, he had seams splitting, and a rexine foot pad was disintegrating. However, his music box still played perfectly 'Rock-A-Bye Baby'. The Etsy seller said ted was from the 1930s however ted has a plastic nose and I knew this could not be so. More like 1960s. I referred the bear to a restoration expert who thought he was probably a 1960s Chad Valley, however I have seen a picture of a musical Chad Valley from the 1960s and it is bigger than my ted although it clearly has similarities.

I have since restored the bear - the pictures are from after restoration.

I removed all the foam stuffing.
Washed the fur, conditioned the fur.
Repaired holes.
Fully lined.
Replaced cotter pin joints (30mm in arms, 40mm in legs... NB. the neck is sewn to the body, it is not jointed).
The eyes are amber/black plastic safety eyes, and the nose is black plastic safety nose. The mouth is embroidered with thick black yarn. He has no claws.
I repaired the disintegrating foot pad and refilled the bear with heavy fibre.

I discovered the music box has written on it 'A Gueissaz L'Auberson Switzerland', and as mentioned previously plays 'Rock-a-bye baby' perfectly .

I am not sure what the fabric is, but it does feel like it has wool in it. It has a woven back. Someone told me, however, it could possibly be a mohair/rayon mix. Ted is a stone colour, maybe taupe. He is 12 inches tall, head to toe. He has no label.

He is altogether a very charming bear and I am delighted I rescued him. However I would like to sell him sometime and need to know who the manufacturer is and what I should charge. I paid £38 for him in 2022. I am a novice when it comes to values and pricing, all I can do is go by similar bears in previous auctions and see what they sold for, but because I have no idea who the manufacturer is I don’t know what to search for.

Any info you can give me is much appreciated. I have searched for a similar bear online for hours and can only find one (on Google images) which had no details when I visited the associated website.
I can’t wait to solve the mystery.
Alice (Essex UK)

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