A graduation gift

A graduation gift has to survive the next ten years: the first flat, the second flat, the move abroad, the move back. Flowers do not, and a bottle is gone by Sunday. A well-made teddy travels in the bottom of a box and comes out at the other end unchanged.

The teddies here are the kind a parent, a grandparent or a group of friends gives: a proper gift without being a grand one, from makers whose work is recognisable decades later, a Steiff, a Hermann-Spielwaren or a handmade Charlie Bears piece.

One with a face the graduate would have chosen at six tends to be the one that gets packed first for the first flat.