Schuco "Janus" Bear, ca. 1954
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APPRAISER:
This is a wonderful piece that you've brought in today. I hear there's an interesting story behind it. Why don't you tell me about it?
GUEST:
Well, when I was a small child, I never really had a teddy bear till I was, oh, five or six years old and my mother took me to town and I bought the teddy bear for myself. So I have always kept it put away because I didn't think it was big enough to play with, so...
APPRAISER:
Do you remember how much you paid for this?
GUEST:
About ten cents.
APPRAISER:
And how long ago was that?
GUEST:
About 60-some years ago.
APPRAISER:
Okay, we won't get specific on that. This is a nice piece, and I want to point out some of its features. What makes this very collectible is that the size of the piece-- a lot of collectors look for the smaller bears. This piece was produced in Germany and it's called a Schuco yes-no bear. And I want to show you, because it says "yes" and it says "no." But there's also a really nice feature to this is that in addition to that it has one of these little funny faces on the back. Now, what makes this very special is that you can see on the eyes and the tongue that they're in excellent condition. Now, on the bottom here, this is the device that moves the head and the bottom-- makes it say "yes" and "no" and flips it around. Now, a piece like this, I would definitely pay in the $500 to $600 range.
GUEST:
Oh, my.
APPRAISER:
What do you think of that?
GUEST:
I think that's great.
APPRAISER:
Well, good, thanks for coming in.
GUEST:
Okay.
Appraisal Details
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