By Miki de Goodaboom

(Illustration based on photos sent by a Go Teddy’s Follower from the UK)

I recently had the immense surprise to receive 2 photos from somebody in the UK who has started following Go Teddy. Both photos were featuring “Rupert”, in very different forms.

Now, I said it before, I was introduced to Teddy Bears very late in my life, and consequently my Teddy bear culture is quite poor. But I am working at it, and I hope that Teddy Bear lovers around the world will help me knowing as much as possible about Teddy Bears. Some are already doing, and my  Truffle McFurry and Me  are very thankful to them…

I did not know Rupert, and I had to research him. Wikipedia told me many interesting things about him. Basically, Rupert Bear is a children’s comic strip character created by the English artist Mary Tourel and first appearing in the Daily Express newspaper on 8 November 1920. Interesting is that originally, Rupert is depicted as a brown bear, but his colour soon changed to white to save on printing costs!

Now this person from the UK sent me a photo of his Rupert Teddy Bear, a white Bear. And he sent me a photo of a very special brown Rupert, to be found in Linford Park Wood, Milton Keynes.

So I decided to paint them both together in that beautiful wood… and here they are!