By Lubna Abdel-Aziz The magic, beauty and mystery of Toyland has lured children of all ages to its comforting shores since civilisation's earliest days. Enchanted and starry-eyed, they enter its golden gates and linger on well into their adult years, so hard it is to tear themselves away, so hard it is to separate the child from the man. Last week in London, at Christie's Auction House a toy teddy bear was auctioned at the incredible amount of $25,000, yet by no means the highest price ever paid for a teddy bear. In 1984, another precious teddy bear's highest bid was $180,000, a record price for that gentle, cuddly, fuzzy, favourite children's toy. The bid however, was not made by a child. Those who attend these auctions, make these bids and pay these high prices are not children. Toys are big business, and corporate executives run big businesses. A business worth $24 billion dollars in annual sales is no child's play. The appeal of teddy bears has left parents, educators and psychologists baffled. Why bears? Theories abound. Bears seem friendly and playful at circuses and zoos probably because of their thick shaggy fur; and a bear hug has come to mean the biggest, longest, warmest hug ever. Bears appear as mystical creatures in European folklore. They are strongly featured in children's masterpieces such as , by AA Milne, and "A Bear called Paddington" series by Michael Bond, as well as many classic fairy tales like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The story suggests symbolic Oedipal connotations, or an expression of sibling rivalry, or a search for identity. Despite many analytical efforts by teachers and scientists such as Carl Gustav Jung, their appeal remains a mystery. "Teddy Bear" just turned 100 years last month, and as the world celebrates his centennial we recall the fanciful circumstances of his birth. Legend has it that on a hunting trip in November 1902 American President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt's Louisiana hosts trapped a bear cub for him to kill as a trophy, but Roosevelt refused to shoot, calling it "unsportsman like" to shoot a defenceless animal. The incident became immortalised in a cartoon by Clifford Berryman, and hundreds of newspaper accounts across the country. It inspired a Russian immigrant toy-maker to produce a stuffed bear cub, which he displayed with the cartoon in his window. Customers rushed to purchase their own "Teddy's Bear", later changed to Teddy Bear. Almost simultaneously in Germany, toy-maker Margarete Steiff was busy working on her new stuffed bear collection, which she introduced at the Leipzig Toy Fair, 1904. According to the Steiff Co. their teddies were used as table decorations at the wedding of Alice Roosevelt, the president's daughter. Steiff bears are famous the world over because of their outstanding workmanship and value. They are objects of high quality and something of a childhood status symbol, but they don't come cheap. The reason is that they are still handmade in Germany. Teddies are among the leading collectibles, ranked with coins, stamps, books and dolls. Christie's and Sotheby's have annual auctions dedicated to teddies and their collectors. Archaeological evidence indicates that our first toys are still used by children today. Marbles, the oldest known game, was discovered buried with an ancient Egyptian child 3,000 BC, made of semi-precious stones. Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Roman children played with balls, rattles, dolls, toy animals, hoops, kites, marbles, stilts, tops, dominoes and checkers. Many toys were enjoyed by adults like kites and the hoop. Hoops, also first discovered in ancient Egypt, have had several big revivals especially during the 14th and 18th century, the latest in 1968. Kites originated in China as a military signalling device over 3,000 years ago. From China, they travelled to India and then Europe. By the 12th century European children were flying kites everywhere. Today the kite is a favourite toy in all cultures. The first dolls (from Gk "eidelon" or idol) were religious figures, which were handed to children as toys on losing their religious significance. The oldest European dolls to survive were made of clay but Europe's Black Forest provided the best doll material -- wood. Eventually dolls were made of wax, paper maché, porcelain, bisque and rubber. Today they are made of vinyl, a flexible plastic that tints easily to imitate skin tones. Barbie, the most famous doll in the world was born in 1959 at the New York Toy Fair. 700 million Barbies have been sold to date. She remains as fashionable and ageless today as she was in 1959. Among the ruins of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur, a gaming board considered to be the oldest in the world, since 3,000 BC, was discovered by British archaeologist Sir Leonard Wooley. Look it up on your next trip to London, it is on display at the British Museum. Its markings suggest it was played as backgammon. It is considered the mother of all board games like Monopoly, Ludo and Scrabble, all of which have been enjoyed by families for 4 or 5 generations. The advent of the industrial revolution changed the character of toys and the ability of workers to manufacture them in larger quantities. The early 20th century saw the greatest popularity of electric trains and other powered mechanical toys. Fathers envied their son's toys, and many an older boy would be caught working his train model for hours, crawling indefatigably on hands and knees. It is said the difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. Following WWII space toys, such as robots and rocket ships became extremely popular. Most were made in Japan. The growth of Japanese video games has given traditional pastimes strong competition, but the longing for conventional toys has led to a resurgence of the wooden toy and the stuffed toy. Now we have a happy blend of old and new. Children are growing faster than any generation before. Scientists call it "age-compression" or "telescopic growth", and toy manufacturers are in a frenzy creating new and different ideas and concepts to attract fast varying and changing tastes. There are approximately 1.66 billion children under the age of 14 in the world today and only 3.7 per cent live in the United States. Manufacturers reach the global market by capitalising on the popularity of American pop culture. Studies show that boys buy more toys than girls accounting for 60 per cent of toy purchases among children from 4-7 and rising to 70 per cent by age 10-12. The disparity may reflect the fact that girls mature faster and become interested in clothes, tapes, CDs, and other non-toy gifts of pre-teen years. While electronic computer games are growing steadily, they have not diminished the appeal of classic toys. Adults find teddy bears irresistible. "Having a bear as an adult allows one to hold onto childhood," according to Leila Maniera bear specialist at Christie's "even if it is only locked away in our memories." They will continue to have wide appeal and work their particular "comfort" magic, which has fuelled the explosion in teddy bear popularity. Even in a culture such as technology-oriented Japan, Teddy Bears are now being eagerly adopted by children who seem to need that reassurance of gentler, cozy, cuddly comfort. A visit to your attic, or your storage room may reveal an old battered friend, stuffed away in the bag of memories. In this age of endless bad news, on a misty hazy morn when skies are cloudy and life is murky and the future unclear and uncertain, or in the midst of the sweet sadness of a sleepless solitary night as floods come pouring down your cheek, it is comforting to hold on to a symbol of the security and love we knew as children, when all was well with the world.
