 100th
Anniversary of
Romantic Bears Book
Teddy Bears of New York City’s
Ullman Company
By Roy
Nuhn
Two big fads swept America in
the years before the First World War. One was the picture postcard
craze; the other, a passion for teddy bears, both as stuffed animals
to love and on all types of ephemera, novelties, and souvenirs.
Quite often the same designs and pictures were used for more than
one line of goods.
This was especially true with postcards and children's books.
Several of the many teddy bear souvenir postcard sets of the early
20th century were not original drawings, but reprints from illustrations
initially used for young people's books. In this group can be found
three sets of "The Roosevelt Bears," derived from the
popular series of four pictorial novels published from 1906 to 1908
by Edward Stern & Company; "Mother Goose Teddy Bears"
by Thayer publishing Co., taken from the book drawn by Fred Cavally,
Jr. and sold by Bobbs Merrill Co.; and "The Busy Bears"
set of twelve by J. I. Austen, adopted from the book of the same
name published a few years earlier.
 But
in the case of Ullman Manufacturing Co., New York City', founded
in 1888 by four brothers, the reverse happened. The eight illustrations
found in their small, 16-page book titled Romantic Bears, published
in 1908, exactly a century ago, were not original artwork, but instead
had been previously printed as postcards.
Ullman relied upon three different postcards sources for the pictures
used in the book. Thought the publication carried a 1908 copyright
notice, the postcards used have a 1906 or 1907 copyright date.
These sets were:
Series 79. "Days of the Week," consisted of seven cards,
individually numbered 1905 to 1911 and titled with a different day.
Each shows a "little bear" going about her household duties,
such as "Thursday, This Little Bear Bakes Pies." It was
done in 1906 by famed artist and etcher Bernhardt Wall, who did
many sets of postcards for the company.
Series 88. "Romantic Bears" is a set of four by an artist
identified only as "M.D.S." and copyrighted in 1907. Scenes
are of spooning bears and the cards are identified with numbers
running from 1950 to 1953.
 Series
73. "Sporty Bears" has seven cards also designed by "M.D.S."
and a 1907 copyright notice. Numbered from 1923 to 1929, portrayals
are of a bear cub involved with various sports (baseball, swimming,
golf, tennis, etc.).
A listing of the eight illustrations found in the book, with their
postcards sources, follows:
"The Lullaby" - from "Romantic Bears"
"Too late" - from "Romantic Bears"
"Bowling" - from "Sporty Bears"
"Golf" - from "Sporty Bears"
"A Letter to My Love" (also used on title page) - from
"Romantic Bears"
"Baseball" - from "Sporty Bears"
"Who Cares" (also used, with slight variation, on front
cover) - from "Romantic Bears"
Untitled. Bear with umbrella carrying hymnal (last page of book)
- from "Days of the Week"
Except for the last illustration, which ends the books', each picture
is on the right side opposite a verse-filled page on the left. The
poetry is credited to M. Goldsmith.
Either the editors at Ullman, or the author, used all of the four
postcards from the "Romantic Bears" set for the book and
then finished it with scenes from the other M.D.S. card set, "Sporty
Bears."
 Interestingly,
the pages with designs from "Romantic Bears," have the
same captions as the postcards, a necessity because the wording
was part of the picture. But the "Sporty Bears" have the
caption below the picture and these were omitted when included in
the book. For a final flourish, they used Wall's hymnal-toting bear
as the finale.
Ullman Manufacturing Co. was a prolific producer of Bernhardt Wall
decorations, books, paper dolls, juvenile materials, coloring books,
and much more. If there was a common bond all old-time publishing
houses shared, it was the desire to cut cost by using illustrations
purchased from free-lancers, or even done by their own staffers,
over and over again. Raphael Tuck & Sons, the London-based giant
who exported thousands of tons of paper goods to the United States
every year from the 1880s up to 1914, was a master at using the
technique, as was McLouglin Brothers Co. in this country. Ullman
was also a firm believer in the practice and we find other examples
of multiple uses of artwork among their output in the early years
of the last century.
It would not be surprising to find other collectibles from the past
with Ullman's teddy bears. Perhaps on calendars, paint books or
even wallpaper.
CAPTIONS
1. Title page of "Romantic Bears" book (1908).
2. Inside illustration from book.
3. Postcard (1907) used for book illustration.,
4. Postcard from "Sporty Bears" series.
5. Inside "Romantic Bears" book illustration, though artwork
was taken from the "Sporty Bears" postcard series.
©
2008 Mountain States Collector
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