(1906) Charles Sackman patent application

This company like Hecla began making bears to be Americas answer to the successful German Steiff bear. This adorable early American teddy was made by Charles Sackman of New York in 1907. Remarkably, he still retains his original patent tag stapled to left ear(19th February 1907, patent number 844,619 - see first link shot below for more information. A clear print out will be included with the bear).

Charles Sackman's was filing patents in November 1906 and announced them in the official Weekly Gazette of the US Patent Office  In one application, Sackman claims, "I have invented certain new and useful improvements in toy animals". One "invention" he claims as his own is the forming of depressions to create eye sockets enabling the buttons to be well-secured and simulating the "deep-set" appearance of real animals. In fact, Ideal bears of the era are also known for having deep-set eyes!

So many firms copied one another during the early years of teddy bear production, and it is interesting to see how this wonderful example possesses many characteristics of an Ideal bear and may have been mistakenly identified as such had it not been for his ear tag. These bears were clearly put into production to compete with the more expensive rival companies.