A teddy bear that starred in the 1980s TV drama Brideshead Revisited has been auctioned for £26,000.
The bear, called Aloysius, was sold as part of the collection of Teddy Bears of Witney shop owner, Ian Pout.
In total, Mr Pout’s collection realised £290,000 at auction this week, nearly double an estimate of £150,000.
Aloysius was made in 1910.
He gets his name from his role in a 1981 television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s upper-crust novel Brideshead Revisited.
The series was an enormous success and brought early 20th-century, aristocratic fashions back into vogue.
Among them was a so-called Teddy Bear Rennaissance triggered by Aloysius, who accompanies his owner Lord Sebastian Flyte (played by Anthony Andrews) throughout the series. The bear even appears on the DVD issue of the series.
The bear was said to be inspired by one owned by John Betjeman, the poet laureate, and a friend of Evelyn Waugh’s at university.
A sketch for the Sebastian Flyte costume complete with bear sold earlier this year in America.
There is also a teddy-bear-collecting culture independent of screen stardom.
Steiff, the German company that claims to have made the first mass-produced bears, is the most collectible maker.
Their bears have realised as much as $165,000 at auction, with one special edition, made for Louis Vuitton from gold and gems, selling for $2.1 million in 2000.
A Steiff bear was the most valuable item at this sale. The 1926 large-eyed, brown-tipped model was auctioned for £45,000.
The world’s most famous teddy bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, was represented in a note written by his creator Ernest H Shepard explaining the origins of the lazy, lovable bear to a young fan. It made £14,000.
The sale was held by Special Auction Services, whose Daniel Agnew said: “It’s the end of an era seeing this collection leave the shop in Witney.”
Mr Prout, who has only kept a few bears of particularly special personal meaning, told the BBC before the sale: “To say that it will be sad to part with the collection is an understatement.
“For better or for worse, the decision is taken and, if we are to part company, I have decided there would be no cherry picking.
“If any of them bring tears of joy to their new owners I will be happy.”
Earlier this year, a sketched costume design from Brideshead by Jane Robinson sold for just short of $3,000. It showed Sebastian Flyte in a typical garb and with a teddy in his arms.
