Teddy and the Bear Mechanical Bank with Gray Tree

Circa 1907: Designed by Charles A. Bailey for the J. & E. Stevens Company in Cromwell, Connecticut, the Teddy and the Bear celebrates President Theodore Roosevelt's penchant for bear hunting. This is the scarce gray tree variation, which is only found on perhaps one out of every 50 examples, and, according to Bill Norman's The Bank Book: The Encyclopedia of Mechanical Bank Collecting, the gray tree model is so hard to find because it was only done on late production banks; thus, not many were made, and even fewer have survived. This fantastic patritotic and political mechanical bank also has no chips, cracks, or repairs and retains an unusually high percentage of its original paint (in the neighborhood of 95%), and this compunds the bank's rarity and value. Finally, this high grade cast iron Teddy and the Bear with gray tree retains an original coin trap and works well with a great tight action.