A lovely old Merrythought Bingie bear c.1930s (no label), with a torso that houses a storage compartment. She wears a satin neck ribbon printed with her name – Tabitha – and sits 30cm (12″) high in her fixed position.

Tabitha’s head swivels, and she has original amber glass eyes with embroidered features. In the past, her pads have been neatly recovered, along with her ear linings, and her head and limbs are woodwool-stuffed.

Made of dual plush mohair that shows some thinning and bald areas, Tabitha’s storage case is accessed at the back via a large metal zip. It’s lost its interior lining, leaving the woodwool exposed to her limbs, but it’s firmly packed in – though probably no longer suitable for actually storing nightwear, without being relined. To pad her out, Tabitha’s torso is currently filled with an astonishing amount of polyfibre, which when removed she enjoys resting on!