Steiff Polar Bear White 27, 27 cm, EAN 652110, for FAO Schwarz, USA

This 27 cm stuffed bear is a reproduction in a new size of the polar bear created by Margarete Steiff of Germany in 1909. One of these Steiff bears was purchased from FAO Schwarz in New York in 1911 and given to young Douglas Spedden of Tuxedo Park, New York who promptly named him Polar. Douglas took Polar with him everywhere, even into a lifeboat on the night the Spedden family escaped from the sinking “Titanic” in April of 1912. The following year Douglas’s mother wrote a story for her son that described the family’s travels and “Titanic” experiences as told through the eyes of Polar the bear. For 80 years this story lay forgotten in a family trunk until it was published in 1994 as the beautifully illustrated book, “Polar The Titanic Bear”, sold exclusively by FAO Schwarz.