Welcome to my blog, featuring various pieces from my collection of Oz books, artwork and memorabilia!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Teddy Bear Bread

This weekend I went to a local antique show, and ran across a fun little item - a set of postcards by W.W. Denslow advertising Teddy Bear bread. This set only has 3 cards, which read as a complete series, but there should be a fourth card - the final one which says "I'll Buy It!"  and shows a boy purchasing a loaf from the teddy bear. I'll have to keep an eye out for that one! (See comments below - there's actually a fifth card as well!)

I love the fact that Teddy Bear Bread would be found for sale at "conscientious grocers". This was the time period of the pure food movement, and the Pure Food and Drug Act had been passed in 1906, to control adulterated or mislabeled food. Obviously, this could be turned into a selling point!

2 comments:

Cindy said...

There are actually five cards. There is another one similar to "I'll Buy It" that says "I'll Sell It". I have it but have never seen another. There is also a Steiff Teddy Bear bread stickpin (non-Denslow) that had something to do with this promotion, according to an article I read.

Bill Campbell said...

That's interesting...maybe a sixth will turn up with "I'll eat it!"!

With these three cards, I also got a little booklet of Teddy Bear Bread decal/transfers of the same vintage, showing the bears playing at different activities - not Denslow designs, unfortunately - that would have been very fun!