Paddington Bear, the much-loved star of 27 books, 4 TV adaptations, a stop motion film and the two recent blockbusters, is celebrating a big birthday. 2018 marks the 60th anniversary of Paddington’s first ever appearance in the inaugural Paddington book, A Bear Called Paddington. All sorts of Paddington Bear memorabilia is being launched to commemorate such a momentous anniversary. After all, 60 human years is 120 bear years, which makes Paddington very old indeed! we’re taking a look at some of our favourite Paddington items of years gone by. Has any of it become very valuable over the years?
The original Paddington Bear memorabilia: The plush toy
Image courtesy of The Paddington Collective
In 1972, Shirley Clarkson, mother of the famous Jeremy, owned a small business called Gabrielle Designs. She decided to make Paddington cuddly toys for Jeremy and his sister Joanna because there wasn’t one on the market yet. When he saw it, Paddington creator Michael Bond was quite taken with her imagining of the bear and Shirley was granted an official license to make and sell them in the UK. And so dawned the age of Paddington Bear memorabilia.
Paddington continued to gain popularity and in 1975 American toymakers Eden Toys bought the license to make and sell their own version of Paddington Bear. However, Eden Toys’ bears were mass produced, affecting their value. Meanwhile, all the Gabrielle Designs versions were handmade in Shirley’s small factory in Doncaster. As such, Gabrielle Designs Paddington Bear toys are now considered collector’s items!
If you have a vintage Paddington abandoned in your attic, you can expect to make between £50 and £100. However, early editions like this Golfer in mint condition can fetch double this. The most valuable bears, though, seem to be Gabrielle Designs’ imaginings of Aunt Lucy, which are on sale at The Paddington Collective for up to £300! To reach their true value, a bear must be in good condition and have all its original tags. This includes Paddington’s iconic “please look after this bear” tag.
Did you know…
Bears really do live in Peru! Deepest darkest Peru is home to spectacled bears, who aren’t quite the same kind of bear as Paddington, but are close enough for us.
Vintage Paddington Bear books
Image courtesy of AbeBooks
Copies of Paddington Bear books are in no short supply. Your average Paddington paperback, sadly, isn’t worth much at present. If you have a vintage or first edition copy of an early Paddington story, though, then it’s a different matter entirely! In particular, if you have a first edition of A Bear Called Paddington hiding in the attic, then you could be sitting on a small fortune.
To be valuable, the book must be in good condition and ideally still have its dust jacket. A little wear and tear won’t impact the value massively, but the better the condition, the more it’ll be worth. A first edition, first printing of A Bear Called Paddington by original UK publisher Collins sold for almost £4000 on eBay recently, while others are currently listed at close to £3000. They can be sold for even more if listed on specialist collectible sites like AbeBooks, which has a copy for sale at just under £6500!
Other books in the Paddington series aren’t worth quite so much as a first edition of his first outing. The second book in the series, More About Paddington, has been known to fetch up to £1500. Other early stories routinely sell for £500-600.
Did you know…
Paddington Bear is based on a bear that author Michael Bond bought for his own wife? The bear was the last on the shelf in Selfridges one Christmas Eve, abandonded (sob). Taking pity on it, Bond bought it and took it home as a Christmas present for his wife. The Bonds were living near Paddington station at the time, and named their bear after it. Bond took inspiration from the idea of the abandoned bear and started writing stories about Paddington for his own amusement. The rest, as they say, is history!
60th anniversary Paddington Bear coins
Image courtest of The Royal Mint
It was hard to miss the reports of an individual who sold a Paddington Bear 50p for a whopping £16,000 on eBay earlier this year. Ebay user Jordan Mcilquham claims she found it in her change after shopping. It has since been confirmed that it was an accidental release by the Royal Mint. Since then, a couple more have been listed on eBay and sold for big bucks. But is this the norm for these commemorative coins? Sadly not…yet. The Paddington Bear coins will not be released into general circulation like other commemorative designs that have gone on to become collectible. For now, they’re easily available through the Royal Mint. Prices start at £10 for the cupro-nickel coin, or from £60 for the silver proof coins. This makes them worth significantly more than their 50p denomination, but it’s a far cry from £16000!
Read more: Is your loose change rare and valuable?
What about the Paddington Bear statues?
If you visited London in the autumn of 2014, you probably happened across a statue of Paddington Bear somewhere on your travels. These statues were part of the Paddington trail, a city-wide art project that featured 50 statues each created by designers, celebrities and artists. The statues were then placed in spots throughout London known to be favourites of Paddington himself. Particular bears of note included Kate Moss’s gold-coated bear, the Bear Grylls Boy (bear?) Scout bear and Stephen Fry’s very British bear. But, what happened to them all when the trail ended?
Well, you’re extremely unlikely to find one hiding in your back garden, that’s for sure. Once the trail came to a close, all of the bears were auctioned by Christie’s with all proceeds going to the NSPCC. The lowest price a bear sold for was £7,500. The most expensive was Boris Johnson’s “Bear of London”, which fetched a whopping £40,000!
