ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 10, 1996 TAG: 9610100013
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN GRIESSMAYER STAFF WRITER
MARY Beckner stands and faces the small group of women and their furry guests gathered for afternoon tea at the Hotel Roanoke.
"My name is Mary Beckner," she says. "And I'm a bearaholic."
She sets a fluffy brown teddy bear on the lecturn and continues. "I make and sell bears. I buy and collect bears. Strange people write me checks for bears, and I write checks to strangers for bears. I just love teddy bears."
Mary was one of nearly 40 women who met in the hotel's Shenandoah Room Sunday afternoon to celebrate their love, fascination and, yes, obsession with teddy bears. In particular, they're interested in Boyds Bears, a series of limited-edition plush animals and resin "Bearstones" that have achieved a national following in recent years.
In the Roanoke area, the Boyds Bears phenomenon seems to revolve around The Gift Niche, a boutique on the City Market that sells - and often sells out of - the popular collector's bears. The owners of The Gift Niche sponsored the Boyds Bears Collector's Club Tea to show off some new items and bring together enthusiasts to share their favorite bears and bear stories.
"We've got numerous collectors in the area and wanted to start some kind of a club," said Victoria Taylor, one of the four sorority sisters who own and operate The Gift Niche. "Finally, this year we got the consent of the creator of Boyds Bears, Gary Lowenthol."
According to many of the collectors at the tea, it is the creative touch of Lowenthol - or the "Head Bean" as he is known - that makes the bears so special. Each season, he personally designs each new bear and names it to reflect its personality. The bears are numbered and marked with a paw print to ensure their authenticity, and after several years they are taken out of circulation.
It all started - with little fanfare - in 1992, when Boyds introduced Bailey, a little girl bear dressed in a green corduroy dress. The next year another Bailey was released, along with her playmate Edmund and a rabbit named Emily. Soon after, the Boyds Collection started to become a bigger player in the stuffed animal market and collectors began buying them as fast as Lowenthol could make them.
"They appeal to everyone," Taylor said. "Everyone from little girls looking for birthday presents for their friends to serious collectors are buying them."
Bailey, Edmund and Emily are still the best-selling pieces in the Boyds Collection, but today there are hundreds of others. Among them: Lars, a Scandinavian looking polar bear in a Christmas tree sweater; Minnie, a female moose decked out in a plaid flannel dress and hair bow; Burl, a bigger and more rotund bear in red plaid overalls; and Dexter, a sort of bookworm bear in a sweater and huge spectacles.
Ramona Dixon is envied at the tea because she has one of the early Baileys. But she sees this more valuable item as just a small part of a much larger collection.
"I probably have 80 or 90 plush Boyds Bears and about 40 Bearstones," she said, adding that bear collecting can become like an addiction. "When you buy one, you have to get more."
"I'd be afraid to say how much I've spent on bears. Probably more than $5,000."
Dixon's love of teddy bears stems from a pleasant childhood memory. But unlike many of the women who attended the tea, her memory is not of a raggedy Winnie the Pooh she slept with as a toddler or giant beanbag bear won in a carnival game. Dixon's memory is that of a very big and very real bear cub she had as a pet when she lived on a Craig County farm as a child.
She said her father saw it rolling down a hill one day while he was driving. He picked the cub up, brought it home and the family fed and cared for it.
"I used to love to feed it with an RC Cola bottle," she said. "Ever since then I think I've been a little bit fascinated with teddy bears."
The women who attended the tea definitely shared Dixon's obsession. Many of the women wore bear-related accessories, such as pins or pendants. One collector arrived with a furry teddy bear pocketbook slung over her shoulder.
While love for the bears is the primary reason for collecting, the Boyds enthusiasts know that there are certain financial bonuses that come with their hobby. For example, a first edition Bailey bear from 1992 originally sold for about $25. Today, Bailey is worth almost $700, and some collectors are willing pay much more than that to get their hands on one.
An auction was held during the tea to sell a piece signed by Lowenthol himself when he stopped by The Gift Niche this summer. Bids quickly rose from the teens to more than $30. It seemed as if everyone knew the value the Head Bean's signature adds to an item that the women already considered quite special.
As the tea ended and the last bear pun - "Thank you for bearing with me" - was spoken, Mary Beckner carefully arranged her bears in their basket for the ride home. Before leaving, the self-proclaimed bearaholic gave another small example of the fascination that she shares with the other Boyds collectors.
"I just really love these bears," she said. Then with a knowing look and quieter tone, she added, "I've got seven little ones in my purse right now."
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. 1. Mary Beckner, a self-proclaimedby CNB"bearaholic," with several bears she made: Smitty, Teala and little
Edith Ann. 2. The spotlight was on a collection of Boyds Bears at a
tea attended by some 40 women at the Hotel
Roanoke. color.