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This honey-bunny is called Steiff's Dutch rabbit. He stands 28 cm tall (not including his ears) and is made from black and white mohair. He has early Steiff rabbit proportions, including a chunky torso and limbs. His pattern is relatively basic and more playful than realistic. He is fully jointed, meaning his head, arms, legs, and ears can be rotated 360 degrees. His face comes to life with pink and red glass pupil eyes and a very simple pink hand embroidered nose and mouth. This pattern was produced in white, brown and white, and black and white overall from 1907 through 1916. The black and white version was produced overall from 1912 to 1916, with the 28 cm version appearing only in 1912.
There are three key details about this rabbit that make him the ultimate Dutch treat.
The first is his eyes. They are hand blown, red and pink glass pupil style eyes. You can see tiny air bubbles in the glass if you look at them closely under a loop. Steiff used these eyes on a number of rabbits from the c. 1907 through 1943 time frame. Glass eyes started appearing on a wide scale on Steiff items around 1908, so these really are an early and elegant example of this detailing. It is also interesting to note that the example of this black and white rabbit pictured in the Steiff Sortiment book has black eyes backed in red felt. But it is not unusual for Steiff to produce the same item with slightly different features, and that is probably the case here. But more on this in a bit.
The second is his jointing. This bunny really gets around - pun intended. He is fully jointed, which is not terribly unusual. However, the fact that each of his ears can be rotated in a full circle is quite rare. This is different than having the ears poseable because they are lined in metal wires. As early as 1904, Steiff started to experiment with a number of designs that really took advantage of emerging joint movement technologies. In some cases, these animals were six or even seven ways jointed. Franz Steiff was very interested in creating and patenting a system that would help to replicate the natural movement of an animal's ear. After several years of trial and error, he finally designed such a specialized joint and received a US patent for it on September 8, 1908. Over time, Steiff used this technology on items including cats, squirrels, and this rabbit pattern.
Finally, it is key to mention this rabbit's material and
coloring. He is made in part from black mohair. Steiff made only a handful of
items from or with black mohair at the early turn of last century; these
included a crow, a goat, a few dogs, and black mohair patches on their early
guinea pig and rabbit patterns. The company also introduced a black mohair
Teddy bear in the early 1900's but it was not commercially successful. Early
black mohair items really are few and far between, and seldom if ever seen on
the secondary market.
The black and white version of this rabbit debuted in
1912. This is the same year that the Titanic disaster struck, and Steiff responded
by producing black mohair "Mourning Bears" with red felt backed eyes.
An example of Steiff's Mourning Bear is pictured above on the left; the photo is
from James D. Julia. These black bears from 1912 are considered the "holy grail" for many Steiff collectors. Although the Holland rabbit under discussion here has "albino"
style glass eyes, the one pictured in the Sortiment has the same red-backed eye
detailing as the company's Mourning Bears of the identical period. Given the
timing of all of this, it is possible that the company's black and white mohair
Holland rabbits from 1912 were made from the same lots of black mohair as the Mourning
Bears, and that perhaps the red felt backed eyes that appear on some examples are a nod to this tragedy as well. It certainly is a mystery of Titanic
proportions!
Steiffgal hopes this discussion on the company's black and white Holland rabbit has been a hop, skip, and a jump for you.
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