Silver keyring with teddy bear in striped black jersey

A striped teddy bear keyring with a stated height of 6 cm

At arm's length you read the stripes first. The bear wears a black and white striped jumper in enamel, the bands running straight round the body from the hem up to the underarms, and that horizontal rhythm sits against a head packed solid with clear rhinestones. Nothing else on the front competes with it. The sleeves finish at the wrists, so the stone-set paws are left exposed, and a narrow black collar closes the jumper at the neck, grooved with fine vertical lines like the rib of a knitted welt.

Two black ears, two black eyes, one red mouth

Come closer and the face resolves into a short list of parts. The ear hollows are filled with black enamel inside a thin silver rim. The eyes are round black domes, set flush with the paving. Below them sits an oval muzzle of bare, finely grained metal, the one patch of the front that carries no stone at all, and it holds a black nose above a red mouth drawn as two small curves. That red is the only colour in the whole piece, and it is what your eye goes to.

Clip or ring: two ways to carry it

The top of the piece gives you a choice. A lever clasp and a wide flat ring sit side by side: the clasp snaps shut round a bag loop or a belt tab, while the ring takes keys threaded on in the usual way. There is no need to use both at once. Below them the drop continues through two oval links, a metal stirrup holding a short barrel, and finally a round ring pinned through the loop moulded at the top of the head.

What the two photographs show

Three finishes share the surface, each kept to its own zone, and the table below sets out what is visible in the shots.

The plain back, and how to keep it clean

Turn the bear over and the decoration stops dead. The reverse is bare silver-toned metal cut with small heart-shaped recesses, repeated from the crown down to the feet, and none of it shows when the piece faces forward. This is also the side that lies against the lining once the keyring goes into a bag. Dust ends up in those little hearts and in the grooves of the collar. A dry cloth folded to a point reaches both better than a cotton pad, and on the paving it helps to follow the direction of the rows rather than rubbing in circles. Unclip the bear before you clean the bag itself, and keep it away from sprays, whose residue dulls the stones. If the size suits you but the subject does not, take a look at what else hangs from a keyring here, from bare metal to plush.