Boyds Bears: G.M. Lowenthal

Boyds Bears' founder, G.M. Lowenthal, moved to rural Boyds, Maryland, near Washington, D.C., to open an antiques shop in 1979 with his wife, Tina. This was the beginning of The Boyds Collection Ltd. G.M. and Tina began to seek out and sell "antique reproductions," with the look and feel of true antiques at more affordable prices. This retail venture proved to be so successful that by 1982 they began to wholesale some of these top-selling antique reproductions to other stores. Some of their most successful wholesale items were antique reproduction duck decoys that ranged from a 9" stained teal to a giant 3' whistling swan.

G.M. added a new line when he found a group of 100% Merino Wool Bears from China. In 1984 he designed a 12" fully jointed wool bear and named it after his newborn son, Matthew. This was truly the beginning of Boyds Bears famous plush designs, and officially became coined as "Boyds Bears". Also in 1984, G.M. - tired of painting 20,000 duck decoys until 3 a.m.- turned to resin sculpting to produce "The Gnomes Homes," extremely detailed miniature houses based on American architecture. In 1987, G.M. and Tina relocated the firm to the Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, area, and the company continued to grow.

In 1993, Boyds Bears released its first series of Resin Boyds Bears Collectibles and named them "The Bearstone Collection®". Then in 1994 G.M. introduced "The Folkstone® Collection" which included animals, santas, snowpeople, Boyds Faeriesprites, and angels. Uncle Beans Treasure Boxes made their introduction in 1996. Every year since then, new resin figurines have been added to Boyds Bears wildly popular Resin figurine line.

Beacon's Glow Collectibles is proud to be a Boyds Bears Bronze Paw Dealer and carries the very popular "Boyds Bear of the Month" plush bears.

We are fortunate in that at least 95% of Resin Boyds Bears Collectibles that we carry are 1E or 2E editions. (For example, if the resin piece reads 1E/12 on the bottom then this resin figurine comes from the first edition and was the twelth piece created.) 1E pieces can be identified by a red dot on the bottom of the box; and 2E pieces are identified by a royal blue dot on the bottom of the box. Additionally, Boyd's intermittantly introduces "Limited Edition" pieces. These very special resin figurines can be identified on on the bottom of the piece as Limited Edition/2 (which would mean this was the second piece to be created within this Limited Edition). All of these pieces are truly sought after by Boyds Bears collectors. Once a certain number of cold cast resin figurines are poured, the mold is never used again and is destroyed.

Each of Resin Boyds Bears Collectibles is marked with a symbol of authenticity - Bearstones have a paw print (), Folkstones (for example, Boyds Faeriesprites) have a star (), Dollstones have a human footprint (), and Santa resin bears have a tree print (). One never knows where they will find this symbol on each resin piece.

     - "About Us, History of Boyds Bears, Boyds 101"