Steiff Titanic Black Mourning Bear - Help!

[andyST]

Hallo,

I am a private collector and I try to find out some details about a Steiff black mourning Bear from 1912.

The bear is about 35 cms. high, the Steiff Article Nr. is 5325.
I would like to find out, how many of this bear were produced originally ?

Can anyone help me ?

Thanks a lot,

Andy

[shebob bears]

Hello Andy,
This is all I could find about the Titanic bear. Just a couple of lines in the first section of writing. There is no mention as to how many were produced. But I shall keep searching!

sheila :6034:

610

[shebob bears]

I have found a little bit mor info regarding the Titanic Bear.

The last item for sale at a London auction represented one of only 600 black Steiff bears shipped to the UK in memory of the disaster in 1912 as a symbol of mourning after the R.M.S. Titanic sank in chilly water. No information as yet as to how many were made in total.

The bear's owner disliked the bear so it was locked away where it remained for the next 90 years, emerging eventually in pristine condition.

The sad-faced "mourning bear", all original with button in ear and tag intact, was estimated to sell for 22,000 to 30,000 dollars. It proved its worth at auction when it finished its run at an incredible 136,000 dollars!!!

Hope this is of interest to you.

Sheila

[Judi Russell]

Wow Sheila, you are a mine of information. I love reading the info you produce about these 'lost' bears :6013:

[shebob bears]

Thanks Judi for those kind words, but I take no credit whatsoever! :D I have an absolute passion for browsing every possible medium for information when anyone is searching for that long lost bear or whatever.
I do have quite a collection of really old beary books that I have acquired at boot sales over the years, and it is amazing the amount of information they throw up.

Sheila :6013:

[andyST]

Thanks a lot to all of you.

I take any bit of information I can get about my bear.
What surprises me most is the price you are talking about.... 136.000 dollars ?? I mean, that's quite a lot of money.......

[LisaAP]

Wow, that's amazing! I bet nobody imagined way back then that bears could be worth so much money now and you have one Andy. How cool is that!! Has it been in your family for all that time?

I wonder if my childhood bear can be worth so much? :6086: Most unlikely since it's not so old or rare, lol. One day I'll put up a photo so that Sheila can ID him for me. ;)

Regards

Lisa

[shebob bears]

I shall do my very best Lisa, but I am still trying to identify my own childhood bear which sadly I no longer have, but I believe he is still being handed down through the generations collecting endless cuddles. Ahhhhhh.

Sheila :6013:

[andyST]

Sheila,

are you an expert with Steiff Bears ?
Maybe you oculd have a look at some photographs of my Titanic Bear ?

[shebob bears]

Hello Andy,
I'm no expert, but I just have a very enquiring mind which helps me to delve deeply into all the possible recources regarding all the well known bears. Books, photos, descriptions of every fine detail of the bears can usually narrow the search significantly.
Yes, please post some photos of your Titanic bear. I know everyone on the Forum would be most interested.

Bye for now.
Sheila :6034:

[vixen_X]

This is my faveourite bear ever! If I had a spare £91,000 Id of bought the original, the whole story of the titanic fasinates me! What year is your bear? Steiff have brought out quite a number of LE replica's, some of the most recent being the 2002 and 2003(this one was a massive 70cm and limited to 1912, were as the 2002 was LE of about 7000) Ive been looking everywere for the big version but the only ones I could find were £900+ :6028:
After about 4 months looking Ive found a new 2008 version limited to 1000! Paying a lot of money for him but he should be worth it.

Really showed my geeky side there:eek:

[andyST]

so here are some pictures of my black bear

[g3kitty]

Wow, the black bear is a winner! I love him. Thanks for posting the pics. Have you had the bear with you since childhood, or did you recently acquire him? Please share the whole story with us.

Cheers,
Kitty.

[watson]

in 2000 one of these bears sold through christies for £91,750

[Chrisi]

Hello,

this bear was in ebay.de in a auction ;)
This bear you show is never the Titanic Bear from Steiff or why you think you buy him so cheap? :)

The man who sold him,was on many Auctions in germany to sell this bear but no one has bought him. He is different from the Titanic bear for sure.

regards
Chris