(1915) Omega Coaster Toy. Bear Sold £450

’Bear Coaster’ a rare British United Toy Manufacturing Co Ltd Omega teddy bear coaster circa 1915, 

with blonde mohair, clear and black glass eyes with brown painted backs, pronounced muzzle, restitched black nose and mouth, swivel head, jointed limbs with felt feet pads, hump, seated on wooden seat with metal framed coaster with wooden wheels —11 1/2in. (29cm.) high (some thinning and wear, dusty and right wear loose)

The coaster bears changed in design throughout this time, starting with the very pointed triangular face, painted back eyes and horizontal nose stitching, to the later more rounded face, amber and black glass eyes and vertically stitched noses of the 20s bears.  We bought a well known example that turned up at Christie’s in London.  It was a teddy bear tea cosy and had the original paper swing “Omega” label and it was from this example that the later Omega bears were generally more widely identified.  However, we already had an example of this Omega bear on a wheeled coaster toy.  We have also had two other examples of bears on this coaster toy and have seen another. The early toys are marked “J.R.Toys Ltd” on their wooden wheels. There are certainly therefore at least four examples of bear designs that were used throughout nearly 15 years of coaster toy manufacture…a great aid to identification. They were identical facially to the normal jointed teddy bears available, with just the limbs being adapted to sit on the wheeled coaster toy.

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