The Teddy Bear Orphanage (TBO) was founded by Vincent and Lyn-Louise Morris in 1998 to sell top quality bears to caring people who are willing and able to give them loving homes.

This originally came about because they frequented many antique fairs in their capacity as interior designers and often found bedraggled bears looking very miserable, sat outside in the cold - and even the rain at times. Can you imagine how sad!!! Vincent was kind enough to rescue them whenever Lyn-L spotted one but how much room can one family have to accommodate forlorn bears. There came a time when seams were bursting and tethers were torn. It called for a brain storming session like no other ... and The Teddy Bear Orphanage was born.

These bears became known as 'Rescued Bears', for obvious reasons. Of course, rescued bears are becoming harder and harder to find and many people were asking for different bears so Vincent and Lyn-L decided that it would be great to search the world to bring back to England as many different, unique bears as possible. Not the run of the mill bears that could already be found in the UK, but to go searching for those special bears, where artists use extra special skills or bears of different styles. Believe it or not you can tell a difference between bears from different countries. Take a look:

This is Gordon from Germany This is Biri from Japan

Now German bears often have lower ears, larger feet and fatter tummies, Japanese bears are firmer stuffed, more traditional in style but made to perfection. It has been said that the Japanese were slow to start collecting and making bears but they have since caught up with Europe and in my opinion superceded them in their creation.

Most people do not have the opportunity to trawl the world, bear collecting, but Vincent and Lyn-L have done that in their stead. Vincent's comment is, 'It's hard job but someone has to do it!' Hence the 'Artist Bear Range' began.

Then of course there are always those looking for bears at bargain prices. And why not, we all work hard and if we can find something a little cheaper we deserve a treat now and then. This range of bears started because so many people hearing the name, The Teddy Bear Orphanage, thought we took in bears that we no longer wanted. So that is what we started to do, when people we were re-defining their bear collection or who were moving and needed to find somewhere else for the bears to go, they came to the Orphanage, these were called Re-housed bears. However, the range needed expanding beyond this and so Vincent started the search for bears he could sell (find homes for!) at really good prices and so the HOT DEALS range came about, where bears are usually 50% of retail prices. If they are re-housed bears then this is mentioned but it must be pointed out that only absolutely perfect bears are permitted to join with the Orphanage.

So, there are 3 ranges of bears within the TBO are:

The Artist Bear Range - Brand new top quality artist bears
The Rescued Bear Range - Antique and old bears
The HOT DEAL Range - bears at 50% of retail prices, some of which are second hand (but are clearly marked as such).

The teddies come from all parts of the globe: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Eire, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, South Africa, Norway, Switzerland, the UK and the USA. Vincent and Lyn-L travel to many of these countries each year and so even the rescued and re-housing bears are not necessarily the usual ones that are found in the UK. The prime target is always for uniqueness, a bear that is different.