Teddy Bears At the Seaside--Postcards 1910

Pictures of teddy bears were popular on postcards in the early 20th century. Teddy bears were first developed in the USA in 1902. Named for President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, the first stuffed toy bear was invented by a man named Morris Michtom, inspired by a newspaper cartoon of the President with a bear cub. At about the same time, and apparently unrelated to the American Teddy, the Steiff firm in Germany also began making stuffed toy bears, first exhibited at the Leipzig Toy Fair in 1903. Link  These stuffed bear toys soon captured people's imagination around the world and have enjoyed enduring popularity with children and adults, and there are many informal and serious collectors of Teddy bears and memorabilia.

This cute postcard series by Raphael Tuck & Sons called Teddy Bears At the Seaside from 1910 celebrates the summer with cartoon images of the toy bears dressed and acting like humans, enjoying the beach and ocean. They are by the same artist (the signature is the same but illegible--possibly Ellery?) and are similar to the cards in Tuck's popular series Mixed Bathing (1908-1909), and Trunks Full of Fun (1913) which were recently featured on The Paper Sunflower. Link They are also similar to the Breakfast In Bed Series, also featured on The Paper Sunflower. Link These souvenir postcards were sold at various seaside resorts in the United Kingdom, and were also apparently sold in France, as some of them contain French writing, although none are shown imprinted with names of French resorts. Images are courtesy of tuckdb.org. Link

Cute Animal Summer Postcards 1908-1909

Cute cartoon animals were popular subjects on postcards in the early 20th Century. Two series of postcards Called Mixed Bathing I and II were issued by Raphael Tuck & Sons in 1908 and 1909 which celebrated the joys of summer by featuring animals dressed as people swimming and having fun at the beach. They were sold as souvenirs at various British and French resorts. Another series called Trunks Full of Fun by the same artist, featuring well-dressed elephants, appeared in 1913,

Inexplicably, one of the Mixed Bathing cards is stamped "Joyeux Noel", so it was apparently sold as a Christmas Card, in spite of its decidedly summery theme. Although the artist's signature is unreadable (Ellery?), it is the same as appears on a similar popular series of Tuck postcards from 1907-1908 called Breakfast In Bed, which also features cartoon animals dressed and acting as humans. This series was highlighted in a previous post on The Paper Sunflower which can be found here. Link

The following postcard images are courtesy of Tuckdb. Link

Breakfast In Bed (1907-1908)