Okay, I've taken some initial photos of this bear. The skin, despite as old as it is (1912 or earlier) is in great shape. The hair isn't slipping, I don't think it has been out of the box since Edward brought it home to Connecticut. It stayed in it's box in his attic work area.

The original pads and claws are on the feet, but a form would have been used for the head and it has wax plugs for the back teeth, kind of crumbling painted plaster for the tongue and gums, and it has carved ivory upper and lower fangs and far front teeth. Amazing.

I have the original box it shipped in, and I have a musty but intact shroud thing (complete with a sewn slot with ties for the head to be slipped through, probably for shipping.)

eBay won't let skins and animal rugs be sold there. They're non-PC items (yet they will let clearly "genuine fossils" manufactured in Romania be listed as if they're the real thing). Anyway, I wonder if I sell a toy bear (I have lots of Beanie Baby bears and other toys here) and in the auction include a link to "my other non-eBay sales" without any mention of the bear. It would be a process of discovery, but if the toy is sold as a grizzly bear toy, it would turn up in a search and I would have to rely on shoppers to find it. I wonder if the PETA folks who patrol the site would consider this a breech and report it?

Does Amazon allow sales of stuff like this? Are there other legitimate online auction sites I should be considering?

I'm also looking for hunting and taxidermy publications where I might run an advertisement. I looked into this before then set it aside; I'll pull out that research material. I had a back-channel discussion with a guy who thought I was nuts to ask a high price for it, but he shut up when I told him how old it was, that it went from a musty bear rug to an antique. Maybe he was tired of arguing, or maybe he was into a field he couldn't respond to.

Thinking out loud, but I would like to see this critter move on to someplace where it would be appreciated. It scares the cats and is a tripping hazard in my house. :)

SRS