Butternut Bear Carved By Richard Thompkins from Canada, about 6 in

Richard Thompkins was born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1930. He did a stint polishing chrome automobile bumpers in Sudbury, and spent a short time in the Canadian Navy. He then suffered a back injury and moved to Cookstown, where he bought some woodworking tools and started carving. He opened a shop selling and repairing antiques, and there began to sell his carvings as he developed them.