All dressed up and nowhere to go? Not this beautiful Steiff girl doll! Although Steiff is best known for its wonderful mohair Teddy bears and animals, the company also produced extraordinary and high quality felt dolls through the early 1950's. This sweet treat is the best of all possible worlds, with her fabulous and well coordinated outfit and amazingly appealing presentation. Let's take a look at her and see what makes her so special from the product design and historical perspectives.
This sweet flower is Steiff's Rosl.
She is 35 cm, standing, head and leg jointed, and made from flesh
colored felt. Her arms hang softly at her sides. She has well defined
hands, a sweet and toddler-esque
face, and shapely limbs. She comes to life with a blond mohair wig,
lovely inset blue glass pupil eyes, and delicately hand painted facial
features. She was made in this size only from 1939 through 1941.
Like all of Steiff's early felt dolls, Rosl is absolutely dressed to the nines.
Her elaborate, well coordinated outfit consists of a red and white
cotton calico dress, a blue and white silken apron, lace trimmed white
cotton underwear and slip, white socks and felt shoes, and a blue hood.
The material on her apron and hood is the same. Each garment is
gorgeously tailored and detailed with ric-rac, lace, and/or matching
trims. It has always been Steiff's tradition to dress their dolls, especially the girl ones, in great shoes and head wear.
Steiff's
pressed felt faced dolls debuted in 1936 and were produced on a
commercial scale from 1937 through 1943, and then again in 1949 and
1950. Overall, about 27 different versions of these
dolls appeared in the line through 1950. Over time, both boys and girl
models were produced in 35 ad 43 cm. These dolls were created to
replace the company's better known and very collectible early dolls with
center seamed faces. Steiff
had been working since the 1920's to find a way to produce seamless
faced dolls. But due to the nature of the felt material, this proved to
be very complicated from a production standpoint. After years of
trying, the Steiff designers finally mastered the art of creating felt pressed faces by reinforcing the molded material with a plastic backing.
Rosl, and all of her pressed felt faced cousins, have very delicate and well formed head features - including lifelike ears. However, her ear shape and position was not conducive for the company's traditional "button in ear" branding. As such, instead of Steiff buttons in their ears, each Steiff pressed felt faced doll was given a special red rubber bracelet that had their button and yellow flag attached like a charm, as well as a named chest tag.
Steiffgal hopes this discussion on Steiff's delightfully dressed Rosl doll has you feeling pretty today.
Have a question about one of your Steiff treasures? Let's talk! Click here to learn more.
Steiffgal certainly finds most Steiff items appealing, but there are some that are truly outstanding - literally! Most recently, she has had the pleasure of welcoming a somewhat rare standing rabbit into her collection. And with his stylish apparel, it is fair to say he has a leg up in the fashion department as well! Take a look at this handsome hare and see what makes him so interesting from the design and historical perspectives.
It's so hard not to break into a big smile when it comes to this happy go lucky fellow. Here we have Ossili. He is 30 cm and made from mohair. His arms are on wires and are poseable and he is head jointed. He has a very dear little tail; large, flat cardboard lined feet that are covered with synthetic leather paws; and sweet hand-paws that are stitched with little fingers. His darling face is detailed with a peach colored felt lined open mouth, a pink hand embroidered nose, clear mono-filament whiskers, and large oversized black and brown pupil eyes. He wears a red felt necktie and a green felt apron decorated with a yellow felt pocket. Ossili was produced in this size only from 1962 through 1974.
So what's in a name, especially Ossili? It is Steiffgals' best guess that Ossili's name may be a nod to the German word Ostern, which translates to the delightful, and bunny-centric holiday of Easter!
Face it, sweet Ossili really resembles another well known and beloved standing dressed rabbit design called Nikili. Nikili was produced as a bub, or boy, and a maedel, or girl, in two versions. The earlier version was in production from 1951 through 1957; the boys wore Dutch style green felt overalls and the girls wore calico skirts and matching green tops. This set was produced in 25 and 35 cm. The later version was in production from 1958 through 1963; the boys wore dark felt shorts and red vests and the girls work red polka-dotted skirts and white felt tops. This second set was produced in 26 and 36 cm. In all cases, Nikili was head and arm jointed and had the head of the very famous and beloved Niki rabbit, who is pictured here on the left.
It seems logical that Ossili is the next "generation" of the pupp-hase (doll rabbit) Nikili based on his timeline and design. In terms of timeline, Nikili stopped production in 1963 and Ossili was introduced n 1962. So this aligns just right. In terms of design, the changes that occur between Nikili and Ossili are quite typical in the way that Steiff updated items in the product line over time - for cost and manufacturing efficiencies. These core elements included:
- Jointing: Nikili was three ways jointed and Ossili was head jointed only, with unjointed arms that were posable on metal wires. Jointing is very expensive, and by reducing the number of joints, the company could save on material and manufacturing expenses.
- Clothing: Nikili was fully dressed head to toe, including shoes. Ossili wore only a simple felt necktie and felt apron, and did not have shoes.
- Materials: Ossili's footpads were made from synthetic leather, not felt. This same treatment (going from felt footpads to faux leather over time) is also noted on the company's beloved panda bears and Teddy Baby patterns.
- Handiwork details: Nikili's nose was hand embroidered in pink with a black outline; Ossili's nose was quite similar without the extra step of a black outline.
Steiffgal hopes this discussion on Steiff's charming and delightful Ossili rabbit is worthy of a standing ovation!
Have a question about one of your Steiff treasures? Let's talk! Click here to learn more.
Posts
Like all of Steiff's early felt dolls, Rosl is absolutely dressed to the nines.
Her elaborate, well coordinated outfit consists of a red and white
cotton calico dress, a blue and white silken apron, lace trimmed white
cotton underwear and slip, white socks and felt shoes, and a blue hood.
The material on her apron and hood is the same. Each garment is
gorgeously tailored and detailed with ric-rac, lace, and/or matching
trims. It has always been Steiff's tradition to dress their dolls, especially the girl ones, in great shoes and head wear.
Steiff's
pressed felt faced dolls debuted in 1936 and were produced on a
commercial scale from 1937 through 1943, and then again in 1949 and
1950. Overall, about 27 different versions of these
dolls appeared in the line through 1950. Over time, both boys and girl
models were produced in 35 ad 43 cm. These dolls were created to
replace the company's better known and very collectible early dolls with
center seamed faces. Steiff
had been working since the 1920's to find a way to produce seamless
faced dolls. But due to the nature of the felt material, this proved to
be very complicated from a production standpoint. After years of
trying, the Steiff designers finally mastered the art of creating felt pressed faces by reinforcing the molded material with a plastic backing. 
