Page last updated at 18:05 GMT, Monday, 16 March 2009

Mystery over a polar bear's past

Peppy the polar bear
Peppy was donated to the museum in 2006

A museum in Leicester is trying to find out more about a polar bear which has been the symbol of Fox's Glacier Mints since the 1920s.

Stuffed polar bear Peppy was moved to New Walk Museum from a factory in Braunstone and is now on display.

The confectionary company donated it to the museum in 2006.

But museum curator Hayley Thompson said not a lot else was known about the stuffed bear.

Publicity stunt

She said: "All we know is that it was at the factory for at least 20 years and other than that we don't know anything.

"We don't know who the taxidermist was, we don't even know if it was male or female. We don't know where the bear originally came from, we know nothing at all.

"It's a real shame, because it's such a lovely specimen, it deserves to have some kind of history with it, so we're really hoping we can find some information."

The stuffed bear, about two metres long, is displayed in the museum in the same pose as on the sweet wrappers.

The polar bear logo was introduced in 1922 and the original bear used was taken by the company to fetes and carnivals across the UK as a publicity stunt.

It is thought there may have been as many as five bears used as the logo but Peppy is the most recent one.

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