Once Upon a design

From time to time, you may watch me drift away from the topic of artist bears on a crest of teddy bear collecting nostagia! I was given my first Chiltern Hugmee in 1964 and don't mind admitting to having been in love with them ever since!

These wonderful teddy bears manufactured in the UK between the 1930's and 50's, are renowned for their quality of mohair, which truly stands the test of time. I love the mystique of their design, a simplicity which disguises a more complicated truth ... to achieve such wisdom of expression and stately bearing, the design relied on a perfectly balanced posture created not only from the original pattern, but also as a result of a wonderful blend of fabric choice, proportions and critically, stuffing materials and technique.

The Chiltern Hugmee range is for me, the ultimate in teddy bear design. Those overly large heads, resting heavily on stout bodies are just so endearing, surpassing all modern day contrivances, I think these wonderful teddies say absolutely everything a bear needs to say about comfort, security and dependability.

Whilst we bear 'artists' as we like to call ourselves, strive for the next unique discovery in design, tweaking and embellishing our work diligently along the way, I often think we should take a lesson from these golden oldies. In my humble opinion, the Chiltern Hugmee factory truly understood what meaningful teddy bear design should be about!