Photo courtesy of Valerie Rogers.

Book is from her collection.

Special Holiday Edition;
October, 1925.

An eEarly illustration of Christopher Robins and his Teddy Bear!

One of the biggest names in teddy bears is Winnie the Pooh, the pudgy little bear who’s a star of books, TV shows and Disney films, whose devotees revere him as everything from best friend to philosopher.

Pooh started out as a real teddy bear, sitting on a Harrods’s Department Store shelf. He caught the eye of Dorothy Milne in 1921, the wife of author Alan Alexander Milne for their son Christopher Robin’s first birthday.

Christopher's first teddy bear.

At first the little bear was called Edward Bear, but within a few years, he assumed his more famous and lasting name. It came from Winnie, a black bear and mascot of the Canadian Regiment from Winnipeg, (See below for the hsitory) who Christopher Robin loved to visit at the London Zoo and Pooh, after Christopher Robin’s favorite swan. Pooh first appeared (as Edward Bears) in A. A. Milne’s book of verse “When We Were Very Young” published in 1924. He then inspired his namesake Winnie The Pooh which was published two years later. Artists Ernest Howard Shepard created the original pencil drawing of Pooh Bear, basing his illustrations in part on his own son’s Steiff teddy bear.

Portrait of Christopher Robins.

See Christopher's toys

In the mid 1960's when Walt Disney Studios created a musical based on Winnie the Pooh in a cartoon form, a new generation of fans fell in love with the plumper, colorful Pooh, who spoke with an American accent and wears a red tee shirt.

In addition to mass distribution of Pooh films and paraphernalia, Winnie The Pooh itself has sold millions of copies, printed in 22 languages, making this “silly old bear’ perhaps the best-known in the world.

The First Winnie the Pooh Stamp in the plate is from Great Britain with Alice in Wonderland, Peter the Rabbit and The Wind in the Willows celebrates the Year of the Child. This is one of the MOST Rare Pooh Stamps

Disney's Winnie the Pooh Bear is depicted on a set of stamps from Antigua, one for every month with Eeyore, Christopher Robin, Piglet and Tiger.

Disney's Winnie the Pooh Bear is an older rendition of the bear. The Canadian officer with a real bear called Winnie. The next stamp is Christopher Robins holding Pooh. The third stamp shows Pooh waving to Kanga, Tigger, Eeyore, Rabbit and Piglet. The last stamp shows Pooh eating honey with a Cinderella's castle in the background.