Restuffed reunion

I recently rejuvenated a Wendy Boston teddy bear (right) belonging to my brother. Both he and the bear turned 50 this year. I dyed him from a pale, faded, turquoise blue - which had become more greenish than blue over the decades - and restuffed the poor, pathetic, flat thing with fresh wadding. I sent it off to arrive just on Christmas Eve and my brother opened it in front of all his family. Hilarious!

The gold bear (left) is mine (aged 52) and is also a restuffed Wendy Boston (Photo taken 2010).

My three teddies

Front row, left - Wendy Boston teddy given to me by my paternal grandmother in 1958. The faded sewn-on tag on one foot used to read "Wendy Boston, England - Wash in Persil". In about 1978, he got damp, via an open bedroom window, and then was flattened by some encyclopedias, so I performed an operation in the early 80s, removed all the old, matted filling, and restuffed him.

Front row, right - Teddy bear bought from Grace Bros, Broadway in Sydney, 1980. He has no identifying tags, but it there was a long white tag stitched to his leg I may have cut it off. Family friends had asked their young daughter what to buy me as a 21st birthday gift (the previous December) and she said quite confidently, "A teddy bear - because he loves them!"

Back row - Blue Bear, with an Ethos manufacturing tag on it, arrived by mail, in a huge box full of colourful party streamers, for my 40th birthday in 1998. Also associated with Morning Glory toys, as sold in Chinese gift stores, I often admired the cuteness of Blue Bear in this floppy pose when my Brisbane friends were temporarily living in Sydney. They remembered - and found one in Brisbane.