ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 21, 1995 TAG: 9512210036
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
When you walk through the front door of Blue Ridge Bears, when you see the teddy bears, it's hard not to think about your childhood.
You clutched Teddy by his ragged ear and dragged him (bump, bump, bump) down the stairs. You chewed on his nose. You sneaked him off to college with you and hoped your roommate wouldn't find poor old Teddy, hidden in the closet behind the bag of dirty laundry.
And here, in this little shop in Vinton, sit hundreds of his cousins, smiling at you from the shelves. Could be the corner toy store, where your folks bought Teddy for you all those years ago.
Except that the customers - adults, all of them - at Blue Ridge Bears are buying stuffed bears for themselves, not for their kids or their nieces or their grandchildren. They're spending hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars on one-of-a-kind teddies to add to their collections, which may number 500 bears or more.
Carol Cundiff has a name for these grownups who spend entire afternoons in her shop, visiting the teddy bears.
"They're not just collectors," she says. "They're bear people."
Bear people, bear collectors, bear fans. By any name, they're making their mark in the world of collectibles. Teddy bears have surpassed both stamps and coins in collecting popularity, Cundiff says; they're second only to dolls.
Cundiff just opened the shop in June, but she's been a bear person for years, ever since her husband bought her her first teddy. All through the years that she worked as a computer technician at Trigon, she collected bears. She has 200 in her own collection now, hundreds more at the shop. Pick out any bear in the store, and she'll tell you who designed it and what it's made of and when she bought it.
And she'll call it by name. Emily, Simon, Bernie.
"Oh, the bears would be so heartbroken if I didn't know who they were," she says. "We have a test every day. They jump up and say," and here she switches to a high-pitched, stuffed bear kind of voice, "'Who am I?'"
She laughs.
"The bears, to me, take on a personality," she says. "And it's not because I'm a mental case or anything."
It's no different from the way a doll collector names her dolls, or the way a cat owner talks about his pet's personality, she says. It's also good for business, because serious bear collectors are fairly picky about where they'll shop.
"Everyone can sell bears, but the collectors want to know that you know the history of the bears," Cundiff says. They also want to know that the shopkeeper appreciates the bears. That's why the bears that are "hibernating" - or, in common retail parlance, on layaway - remain in the shop, on a shelf high up on the wall. Neither the bears nor the buyers would appreciate a dark, lonely storage closet, she says.
The tag on "Peanut," a $100 mohair bear wearing a green jumper, says a lot about modern bear collecting.
"This teddy bear is an artist's creation, specially designed for COLLECTORS. It is not a toy and is not recommended for children under eight years."
Stuffed bears have been marketed as playthings since the late 19th century, when German companies started making toy bears that stood on all fours. But only over the last few decades has bear collecting become a big business, attracting thousands of collectors. Now there are bear magazines, bear Internet sites, bear conventions.
Teddy bear collecting even has a name: arctophily, from the Greek arctos (bear) and philos (love).
The emergence in the early 1970s of teddy bear artists has had a lot to do with the broader acceptance of bears as a hobby. These artists both design and produce limited-edition or one-of-a-kind bears, which often fetch hundreds of dollars at shows and shops.
Sheri Chandler, a bear artist who lives in Blacksburg, began selling bears last year. She's working on her "Dessert" line now; the bears, with names like Brownie Fudge Sundae and Peppermint Parfait, have been selling so well, she says, that she's had to double production, from 10 to 20 units per design.
Chandler has been talking to toymaker Knickerbocker about designing bears for them, she says. That's often the dream of bear artists - to work with a big manufacturer. And since hand-made artists' bears carry a low profit margin - and mass-produced ones are often quite expensive - it's also a good way to make a living.
Cundiff's guest book at Blue Ridge Bears includes entries from Cortland, Ohio; Lakeland, Fla.; Coal Valley, Ill.
"Beautiful bears!" is written beside one address. "Great bears!" beside another. "Love your bears!" beside a third.
A lot of bear people, says bear artist Chandler, will plan their vacations around visiting bear shops and bear shows. Every year, there are dozens of these regional shows - Blue Ridge Bears is sponsoring a bear show in April - where artists display their new bears and compete for industry awards.
But bear people also have been known to rescue bears from garage sales and estate auctions. There's even a site on the World Wide Web that offers bears up for adoption. Bears just get better with age and loving, Cundiff says.
No kidding. In 1989, a bear made in 1926 by Steiff - the premier German bear company - was sold at Sotheby's in London for $86,350. And in 1994, a Japanese toy executive paid $171,000 for a 1904 Steiff at Christies.
Teddy bear artists have picked up on the market for pre-owned bears and have started designing new bears to look like old ones. They use distressed mohair - a sparse, worn-looking upholstery - to make the bears appear time-worn. Some even stain their bears.
It's like pre-washed blue jeans, Cundiff says. Worn teddies are just comforting.
But why bears? Why not dolls?
Some bear collectors also collect dolls or toys or miniatures. But Cundiff is a bear person all the way.
"Dolls are beautiful to hold, they're beautiful to look at," she says. She grabs a light brown bear wearing a grey sweater. Bernie, his tag reads. She cradles Bernie in her arms, like a small child. "But dolls you just can't snatch up and cuddle."
She has customers who come in and visit with the bears, she says. They'll sit in her big rocking chair, sometimes for hours, just getting to know the bears.
Academics have studied the therapeutic value of bears, says Chandler. People who have suffered physical or emotional traumas often will respond to teddy bears when they won't talk to people, she says.
Chandler, who's working on her Ph.D. in wildlife science at at Tech, thinks more people should try teddy therapy.
"A lot of times I think, 'This person really needs a teddy bear,'" she says. She's never really said it, though; her statistics professors probably wouldn't appreciate her concern, she says with a laugh.
But teddy bear therapy is the premise behind Good Bears of the World, an organization founded in 1969 and based in Ohio. Dues paid by the thousands of members, along with corporate donations, buy teddy bears for police cars and hospitals, to comfort kids and adults who have been in accidents or otherwise traumatized. A load of bears was sent to Oklahoma City after the bombing this spring; other shipments have gone overseas.
"Bears are just so comforting, so cuddly," says GBW administrative assistant Rose Mulligan. She's a bear person, too; 500 teddies live at her house.
Just last week, Cundiff lost her first bear to a shoplifter. It was an artist's bear, a miniature, one of dozens of tiny bears displayed in an armoire next to the front door.
"It didn't bother me for the money," she says. "It's actually like they took my dog, or even my child, y'know?"
She pauses, then smiles a little.
"I figure whoever has that little bear needed it very badly, and I hope they enjoy it."
LENGTH: Long : 156 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Stephanie Klein-Davis. 1. Among the selections at theby CNBshop are reproductions (below) if bears originally handmade by
artists from Germany, America and Italy. 2. Carol Cundiff opened the
Blue Ridge Bears and Gifts Shop in Vinton so everyone could become a
bear collector. In the shop with her are her dog, Matie, and a bear
made by a Minnesota artist. 3. Ron Chattin of Roanoke checks out a
1909 Stieff replica teddy bear that was handmade in Germany. Chattin
was in the shop looking for the perfect Christmas gift for his
wife's bear collection. 4. The Professor 163 is a reproduction of an
antique bear in the collection of Doris and Terry Michaud of
Britain. Each bear in the collection has its own story. color. 5.
The Ringmaster and the Monkey are among the bears offered at the
Blue Ridge Bears and Gift Shop in Vinton. The pair sells for $175. KEYWORDS: PHONE NUMBER: 342-4303