A Steiff Price for a Kissless Bear

A teddy bear that apparently was not the object of much childish affection fetched a world record $86,000 at an auction in London, Sotheby’s said. “When I told the owner the news, he said: ‘I think that works out at 1,000 pounds ($1,570) a hair,’ ” said Sotheby’s appraiser Bunny Campione. The two-tone, 24-inch bear, made by German manufacturer Steiff in 1920, has unusually large eyes that “make it look a little forlorn” and is in such good condition “it doesn’t look as if it has been cuddled very much,” she said. “Most of them are cuddled or kissed on the nose so much that the nose gets dented in, or get dragged around the garden by children.” Campione said the bear had been expected to fetch perhaps $7,800, but earlier had been listed in an auction house catalogue at $1,100 to $1,400. The buyer, represented by a British agent, insisted on anonymity. The seller, also unidentified, was a Briton who inherited the bear from his grandmother, Campione said. The previous highest auction price for a teddy bear was $19,000, paid at Christie’s in London on May 18 for a Steiff bear made between 1906 and 1909 for Princess Xenia, a cousin of Czar Nicholas II.

Bernhard H. Goetz has decided to avoid the subways, at least for now. The electronics specialist who became a symbol for crime-weary Americans when he shot four youths who accosted him aboard a New York City subway in 1984, was to leave jail, after eight months, early today and plans to be picked up by car outside the Brooklyn House of Detention for Men. Ruby Ryles of the city Corrections Department said the typical route to freedom for ex-convicts is on the nearest subway. Goetz, 41, was sentenced to a year in jail for illegal possession of the gun, but acquitted on four counts of attempted murder. He spent part of his time behind bars polishing his chess skills in matches with cellmates, including child-killer Joel Steinberg.

Waitress Rose Betzer thought her boss was dishing up a bad joke when he announced that she would be serving the President. He was serious. President Bush, House Speaker Thomas S. Foley and his wife, Heather, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly had dinner Monday night at Patsy Clark’s, an upscale Spokane, Wash., restaurant. Betzer said her initial nervousness about serving the President changed “the minute I met him. He was just a wonderful, nice man.” Bush picked up the bill, $121 plus tip. “You will take a check, won’t you?” he asked.