Calculating The Importance Of This Rare Steiff Walther Poodle

Do you know the saying, "April showers bring May flowers?" Well, if that's true, than the month of May is most certainly going to be "coming up roses," at least around these parts. It's been raining cats and dogs for the last few days, so Steiffgal has spent some time indoors checking out interesting Steiff eBay auction listings. You never know what you'll find listed on this worldwide marketplace! One Steiff rarity caught her eye and inspired her to learn more about it. Check out this prized poodle and see what makes it so outstanding from the design and manufacturing perspectives. 

This eye catching and unusual dog is a special promotional item made for Carl Walther GmbH. The poodle is head jointed and made from grey mohair and wool plush. His face is made from rubber, which was a popular Steiff manufacturing material starting in the early to mid 1950's  When the Walther poodle left the Steiff factory, he wore a blue "Walther" logo tag hanging off of its blue leather collar.  This customer special poodle design was produced in 17 cm and 40 cm in 1955 only.  This is the larger version; the smaller version used grey velvet in the place of grey mohair in its design.  

The Walther brand has deep and broad roots across Germany and the world.  The company, still in business today, is most associated with firearms production. Walther started out making guns at the end of the 19th century. It expanded its production to office machines, like calculators, starting in the 1920's. They continued their calculator line of business through the 1970's.  The poodle was the company's logo for the office division of the company, although its probably no coincidence that poodles are good hunting dogs, too! Walther's poodle came to life with a few black lines, and showed the dog running on his hind legs and effortlessly juggling numbers. The logo tried to demonstrate how easy dealing with numbers could be when you have a Walther machine on your desk. You can see this poodle logo here on the left.

Despite its obvious condition issues, this poodle listed on eBay is still a prince among Steiff's rare promotional items, and is only the second one Steiffgal has ever seen. It aligns to its period of manufacture in three interesting ways.  

First, poodles were a very big deal in Steiff's line in the early 1950's. In addition to the company's standard line selections, including Tosi and several iterations of Snobby, Steiff also created a number of exclusive poodle designs for FAO Schwarz here in the USA. These included fully jointed wool plush poodles and an 80 cm Snobbylac poodle. The Walther poodle has a French trim and most resembles the body shape of Steiff's 1952 wool plush Snobby. You can see the Steiff Walther poodle featured on the cover of one of their business machines catalogs here on the left. 

Second, Steiff started producing items with rubber heads, instead of traditional felt, velvet, or mohair heads, in the early 1950's.  This was done in part to decrease costs and labor, as well as to add flexibility to production and design options. Mostly dolls were produced with rubber heads; favorites from this period are HorZu's Micki and Mecki; the gnomes Pucki, Lucki, and Gucki; the Maggi chef, and LariFari, among others. Steiff's animals with rubber heads include Koko the Cat for the magazine TV Hoeren & Sehen.  

And third, the Walther poodle was manufactured at a critical juncture in the company's history. After many years of hardship and war-induced shortages, Steiff again had the infrastructure to partner with other world-class companies and to produce absolutely custom, top tier items without constraints. This all ushered in a very auspicious period in the company's history.

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on Steiff's Walther poodle has inspired a little puppy love with you!

Have a question about one of your Steiff treasures? Let's talk! Click here to learn more!

Dressed To The Nines With This Fantastic Steiff Mascot Rarity

It's just about back to school time around here. Accordingly, lots of families are off to the stores to pick up new shoes, clothing, and backpacks for the new academic year. If Steiffgal could do her fall shopping anywhere on the planet, it would most definitely be at Breuninger, a high end department store in Germany. And why is that? Their logo - a bear of course - that was made into one of the most sought after Steiff editions ever! Take a look at this little guy and see what makes him so interesting from the collector's perspective.
 

They say clothes make the man - but perhaps they make the bear in this case as well? Here we have a fantastic example of Steiff's Breuni bear. He is about 13 cm tall, standing, and head jointed. He is made from blonde mohair. His arms are lined in metal wires and are posable; his legs and torso are stationary. Breuni has oversized, felt soled flat feet designed for standing. His charming face is detailed with black button eyes, a felt muzzle, distinctive black nose, and a simple brown hand embroidered mouth. Breuni is dressed to the nines in blue felt shorts, a red and white double breasted blazer with buttons, a blue bow tie, and fingered white gloves. He retains his Steiff chest tag, raised script button, and legible ear tag with the numbers "714" on it; this translates to 7=in caricature and 14=14 cm.
 
Talk about a personal shopper! This treasure was produced exclusively for Breuninger in this size only in 1956 and 1957; it is Steiffgal's understanding that he was not actually produced as an item for sale but as a premium that the store distributed to customer contest winners and employees. As such, very few were produced and he was not available to the general public - adding to his rarity. 

Now let's catalog one more really cool thing about this Ted. If you look closely, you will see that he is holding a tiny copy of the store's toy catalog. It is titled Breuninger Spielwaren 1956, (Breuninger Toys 1956) and is suspended like a shopping bag around his right hand. And, if you pull out a magnifying glass, you can make out a teeny tiny Steiff Niki rabbit, as well as a Steiff Mecki hedgehog doll on it. Both of these items were introduced in the early 1950's and were extremely popular at the time. The catalog cover also features two toy vehicles which theoretically could also have been made by Steiff, as Steiff was producing these sorts of items in the mid-1950's as well. However, they are just too tiny for Steiffgal to tell for sure.

 

Breuni was introduced as Breuninger's logo mascot in 1952. He was often featured in store advertising and print catalogs; you can see him on the cover of a 1954 publication here on the left. He is still used for store marketing today, and is a beloved and well recognized brand, especially with kids. In 1995, Steiff produced a delightful replica of their original Breuni in an edition size of 1,500. However, unlike the original that was technically 14 cm, this reissue was slightly taller at 20 cm. 

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on Breuninger's rare and well dressed Steiff cub has suited you well.

Have a question about one of your Steiff treasures? Let's talk! Click here to learn more. 

Green With Envy Over This Unusual Steiff Crocodile

There's nothing Steiffgal enjoys more than a big Steiff smile in her email inbox!  So this particular inquiry got her particularly beaming about the wonder of the Steiff product range.  Take a look at this note from a reader who asks about one of Steiff's more unusual green gentle giants.  Peter writes,

 

"Hello Steiffgal,

We have a crocodile with a Steiff label on it but no Steiff button. We have had it since new when we won it in a raffle in 1984/85.

Did they ever have any items without the button or does this mean it is not a real Steiff?

It is a large crocodile with an open mouth and the tail returns over the body.

Do you know anything about this item? I have attached a photo of it. 

Yours in anticipation, 
Peter"

No need to "dial" up the excitement over this rare and unusual Steiff Crocodile!  What we have here is a very large promotional item made for the company LaCoste.  And it just so happens that the logo for this French apparel company - started in 1933 - is a big grinning crock!   This grinning greenie is standing on all fours and has his tail resting on his back.  He made from soft plush woven green fur.  Crock has an open, red plush lined mouth and pert, machine embroidered eyes. His back and tail are highlighted with white airbrushing to resemble the original logo.  This great item was produced in two waves at Steiff.  In 1984 it was produced in 45 cm, while in 1993 he appeared in a whopping 115 cm.  Because Peter says he won the crock in 1984/1985, Steiffgal assumes that his is the 45 cm version.

Now let's button up his details and branding.  According to Peter, he has a Steiff tag, but no button.  Is this possible?  Well, with Steiff, anything is possible.  But buttons are pretty sacred with Steiff.  Steiffgal knows of only two or three products post the early turn of last century that left the Giengen, Germany factory without a button.  And that was because these items were so darn tiny there simply wasn't a place to affix it.  These items included the really small woolie ladybugs and tiny woolen hedgehogs.  On other item, like birds, Steiff would attach the button via an "ankle" bracelet style of identification.  And some dolls with tiny or logistically challenging ears bore a red rubber bracelet with their button and yellow Steiff identification tag; an example of that is pictured above.  Although Steiffgal has not seen Peter's crock first hand, it is her strongest suspicion that he had a button attached at the base of his tag, or placed somewhere around his fingers or toes. 

Steiffgal hopes this discussion of Peter's giant crocodile has left you grinning from ear to ear! 

Have a question about one of your Steiff treasures? Let's talk! Click here to learn more.