This Charming Antique Steiff Doll Is Dressed For Success

Well, that was a clothes call! Steiffgal saw a wonderful antique Steiff doll in a really eye-catching outfit listed online, but the seller would not ship to the United States. After a little back and forth with the seller - including assuring her that this doll would love her new home in America and would have lots of new Steiff friends here - everything worked out and the transaction was completed. All's well that ends well! Now it's your turn to check out this darling girl and see what makes her, and her costume, so appealing.  Does she call to you as well?

This lovely little lady is named Lena. She is 35 cm tall and arm and leg jointed. She is one of Steiff's late 1930's era pressed felt faced dolls. Her seamless face comes to life with inset glass pupil eyes, a well formed and dimensional nose and mouth, and painted eyebrows. Her cheeks and lips are also highlighted to give her more contrast and coloration. Her long-ish blond hair is made from mohair, and her body and limbs are made from flesh colored felt. Lena's Steiff IDs include a small trailing F style button and yellow tag which are worn on a red rubber bracelet around her wrist (as her ears are molded as part of her head and cannot accommodate a button). She may have had a named, watermelon style bear faced chest tag when she left the factory in Giengen almost 80 years ago, but it has been lost to time.  

Lena's all original costume is as pretty as a picture. She wears a blue felt dress and a cotton blouse with white sleeves. Her apron is made from a light blue floral fabric; her bodice is decorated with red, blue, white, and green embroidered trim. Under all these layers she dons a red, white, and blue calico skirt. Her thigh-high white socks are made from cotton, and her black Mary-Jane style shoes are felt. Her "proper topper" is a black head scarf.

Lena, and many of her dolly brothers and sisters, are featured in Steiff's 1938/39 product catalog. You can see the page here on the left; Lena is the middle doll in the middle row. Please click on the illustration to make it bigger. She appears to have caught the attention of a sweet Waldi dog, as well as the handsome boy named Jockel on her right. The numbers around her correspond to 35 = 35 cm tall, 220 g = how much she weighs, and 8.40 = she costs 8.40 German marks. She is the heaviest, and also the most expensive, doll model on the catalog page; in today's dollars she would cost roughly $55. It is also interesting to note that she also has another word in her brief documentation - "Vierlanderin." 

Such a morsel of information made Steiffgal hungry to learn more. It turns out that Vierlande is a four district area of about 77 square kilometers located in Hamburg in southeast Germany. Digging a little deeper, it appears that Lena is wearing a traditional Vierlande outfit which includes a dark dress, white shirt, lighter apron, elaborate bodice, and a large hat. Steiff has a long tradition of producing dolls in national or ethnic clothing, starting at the turn of the 20th century when they made a series of regionally dressed farmers from different areas around Germany. The picture of the Vierlander on the right is from 1900 and is from Museums Victoria in Australia. As always, Steiff has done a masterful job capturing the details and authenticity behind this lovely outfit.

Steiffgal hopes you are totally in-to this great doll out-fit!

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

This Latest Steiff Find Is The Cat's Meow

Sometimes, the best things in life tiptoe in on little cat's feet.  And such is the case with this week's happy find!  Steiffgal popped into an antique show while traveling recently.  There were many great vintage temptations on offer, but hardly any Steiff... until the VERY LAST booth in the hall.  Check out what was hiding out among a bunch of old toys, puzzles, and other vintage childhood favorites.

What a purr-fectly wonderful discovery! Here we have a nice example Steiff's very early post war "Kitty" cat. She is 17 cm tall, fully jointed, and made from mohair. Her body, limbs, tail, and face are made from very light grey mohair, while her paws, chest, muzzle, and ears are off white mohair. Her back, arms, legs, tail, and the sides of her head are lightly airbrushed with darker gray stripes, making her the true Tabby! Her all original and early slit pupil eyes are made from green-teal and black glass. Kitty has pink hand embroidered facial features, with a red dot on her mouth to indicate her lips. Her claws are red and she retains her original clear mono-filament whiskers. Steiff's Kitty was made from 1949 through 1970 in 10, 17, and 22 cm. This example's coloration, eyes, and "Made in the US Zone" put her in the very early portion of this time frame. 

They say cats have nine lives, and in the case of this example, that is exactly true! Today, when a toy is produced, it usually appears on the market for just a handful of years.  This is due to the "limited edition" phenomenon, as well as changes in market preferences - especially for things like licensed characters. But, in the case of Steiff's 20th century production, some items would appear for years, decades, or even generations.  For example, the company's Molly dogs were introduced in the 1920's and were produced through the end of the 1970's.  And Steiff's black "Scary Cat" pattern appeared in the company's debut catalog of 1903, and is still being manufactured on and off to this day!  Post war, this fully jointed cat pattern was clearly a fan favorite, appearing in the line for almost 20 years. 

Despite her longevity, this pattern did experience a few updates and changes over time. These changes were aesthetic, to keep up with modern preferences, but also structural, to help keep her manufacturing costs in check. So what are some differences between the older and newer Kitty cats? Here on the left, you can see a more "modern" Kitty, produced during the early 1970's. As you can tell, the older ones simply have a more "vintage" look to them. But here are three objective, key physical details that may help to date this beloved and legacy pattern. 

Eyes: Older Kitties have distinctive green-teal and black glass slit pupil eyes, while newer ones have olive-green and black slit pupil plastic eyes.

Coloration and ID: Older Kitties have grey and off white coats that are airbrushed in grey stripes, while newer ones have off white coats what are airbrushed in darker grey or black stripes. Older ones tend to have powder pink noses, while newer ones tend to have darker pink noses.  Older ones also often, but not always, have a "US Zone" tag sewn into their front leg seam. 

Materials: The smallest older Kitties have felt ears and a white velvet muzzle, while newer ones have mohair ears and muzzles. You can see two examples of the earliest Kitties with these details here (along with their sweet friend, a woolie mouse from F.A.O. Schwarz!) 

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on Steiff's fully jointed kittens has been the cat's meow for you.

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

Welcoming 2018 With These Once In A Blue Moon Steiff Rarities

You've probably heard the expression, "once in a blue moon." This phrase is meant to indicate that something happens extremely infrequently, and specifically refers to periods when two full moons occur in the same month. Well, 2018 greets us with two full moons in January, hopefully signaling auspicious things on the horizon for everyone on the cusp of the new year.

To celebrate this special occurrence, and to welcome 2018 in the warmest way possible, please say hello to five "once in a blue moon" Steiff finds. These characters are quite unusual (at least to Steiff enthusiasts here in the United States) and demonstrate Steiff's enormous talents in bringing fictional characters to life. Perhaps they will send you over the moon as well! 

You can't help but dig this first "blue moon" find. Here we have Max Mole. He is 15 cm, standing, unjointed, and made from brown woven fur. His feet are flat, cardboard lined, and enable him to stand. They are made from brown faux leather, much like the soles on the feet on Steiff's standing Zooby the circus bear. He has four felt claws on each hand. His prominent snout has been slightly sheared, then painted a salmon pink. His nose is made from felt, and he has simple black button eyes. He dons a yellow plastic "hard hat" emblazoned with a DB logo; it is visually secured to his head via a black painted strap. This hard working mole was produced in 1999 only as an advertising specialty for Deutsche Bahn, the German railway company headquartered in Berlin.

All that glistens is not gold - but in this situation - it is "Goldi." This petite treat is 15 cm, standing, unjointed, and made from soft plush. Her fabulous and largely scaled head is made from SEVEN different materials, including five colors of short plush, one color of long plush, and felt - for her prominent teeth! Her eyes are simple black buttons and she has black whiskers. Goldi is dressed to the nines in removable clothing including a teal velour shirt and yellow cotton overalls featuring the Commerzbank logo. This precious gem was made in 2007 for Commerzbank, a global financial services company that was founded in 1870 and has its headquarters in Frankfurt. 

It is interesting to note that Steiff also produced a 32 cm Goldi the Hamster in 1978-1980 for Commerzbank. This happy hamster is best known as the mascot of Germany’s “Kinder-Verkehrs-Club” or “Children’s Traffic Club” which was sponsored by Commerzbank over time. This countrywide program was launched in 1976 and ran until 1997. The goal of the program was to help parents of three to six year old children teach their youngsters about road and traffic safety.

Things are twice as nice with this next pair of rarities. Here we have two very playful Steiff dragons. They are both sitting, unjointed, and made from soft yellow plush. Their bellies are white while their wings, back scales, inner ears, and open mouths are orange plush. Their blue tongues are made from felt and their cartoonish eyes are machine embroidered. Each has two sets of arms. The larger one stands 26 cm tall, while the smaller one, which has a keyring attached to it, is 14 cm tall. They bear the GVS logo and are the company's natural gas mascots. Given their form and IDs, this dragon duo was most likely made within the last few years. GVS is short for GasVersorgung Süddeutschland GmbH; they are one of Germany's largest gas companies. According to their website, they "supply natural gas to public utilities companies, regional gas suppliers, industrial customers and power stations both within Germany and abroad."

Next in this monster-mashup is this fine green hand puppet, also in the form of a dragon. This lean green machine is 35 cm tall and made from trivera velvet. His body is green, his wings are pink, his ears are blue, and his mouth is peach colored. He is detailed with green felt back scales, grey faux suede "hair", and oversized black and white google style plastic eyes. You can open and close his huge mouth from inside his hollow body. This playful puppet was made in 1991 as a promotional item for the printer Oldenburg, which is now part of the De Gruyter group. This large publishing house is headquartered in Berlin and has a company history that goes back over 260 years!

Now for a refreshing change, please consider this last "blue moon" Steiff selection. Here we have a very chubby, cartoon looking 30 cm unicorn called "Fritz Horn." This name appears on his yellow Steiff ear tag. His unjointed body is made from white velour and his feet are made from black fabric. His tail and back mane are made from black spotted white velour. His eyes, nose, and mouth are machine embroidered in black. And what's that thing on his head? Why it’s a black velour "fritz-kola" bottle horn, of course! This black and white beauty was made in 2016 for the Hamburg based Fritz Kola company, which was started in 2002 by two childhood friends. This quirky, playful European specialty brand is "mainly known for its high caffeine content (about 25 mg per 100 mL) and its strong lemon flavour as well as its distinctive glass bottles," according to its website.

Steiffgal hopes this review of "once in a blue moon" rarities helps your stars align for a very happy and healthy 2018.  

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

Reminiscing About Christmas, Steiff Style!

There's no place like home for the holidays - no matter where home may be at the moment! Steiff has always helped to make our annual wintertime celebrations even more special, by finding its way in to stockings, under trees or around the menorah or kinara. Check out this photo and brief story from the December/January 2018 edition of the magazine Reminisce. According to its website, this publication is "The nation’s premier nostalgia magazine, Reminisce celebrates what we loved then and how it shapes our lives now." Do you recognize a few special friends here?

Look what can happen when you get onto Santa's "nice" list! Here we have a vintage photo of two charming young girls and their father posing next to a beautifully decorated Christmas tree. You can click on it to make it larger. The copy reads, "Joyous Noel. In 1960, the year I turned 5, my family celebrated Christmas in Karlsruhe, Germany, where my father, Gabby, an engineer, worked for the Singer sewing machine company. My other sister, Phyrene, 13, loved stuffed animals as much as I did. My mom, Fernanda, took the photo. Phyllis Gebhard, Milwaukee, WI." And dog-gonnit, you can't help but notice the pretty pooches the girls are holding - they are "button in ear" dogs made by our pals in Giengen.  It doesn't get much better than this!

These Steiff dogs would have any collector's tail a-wagging. Phyrene's gift is Steiff's happy Hexie the Dachshund. Hexie is standing and made from light and darker tan mohair which has been detailed with copper colored airbrushed highlights to give her more dimension. She has really jolly black and white google eyes and a black hand embroidered black nose and mouth. All Hexies left the factory wearing a thin red collar. This delightful doggie was originally manufactured in 9, 13, 20, and 25 cm between 1954 and 1974. It is interesting to note that the German word for "witch" is "hexe." Perhaps she was given this name because she was designed to cast a magic spell over collectors with her irresistible looks and impish personality?

Phyllis has it made in the shade with her new friend. Her pup is Steiff's Maidy the Poodle. Maidy is standing, unjointed, and made from Steiff's lovely and unusual black "Persian Lamb" textured mohair. She has a slightly longer mohair "beard" around her chin. Her eyes are lovely and distinctive; they are large hand blown almond shaped and feature a black pupil, brown iris, and white corners. Her ears are lined in black mohair. Maidy is one of those Steiff "One-derful" items, made for just a year or so. Specifically, she appeared in the Steiff catalog in 1959 only in 25 and 30 cm. Collectors may recognize Maidy's distinctive fabric as almost identical to the covering of Steiff's larger "Swapl" Persian lambs. These baa-ing black beauties appeared in the line in 10, 14, 22, 28, and 35 cm from 1957 to 1964 overall.

Stitching thing up here, a little research shows that the Singer factory in Karlsruhe did indeed manufacture sewing machines from 1954 until 1982. This timing perfectly aligns with Phyllis' story. According to singersewinginfo.co.uk, "The Singer factory in Karlsruhe, Germany was in production from 1954 until 1982. In 1954 Singer purchased the factory and sewing machine business of the Haid-und-Neu company in Karlsruhe, Germany. Haid-und-Neu had been manufacturing sewing machines in Karlsruhe since the 1860’s and had purpose built the existing factory in 1893... Machines produced at the Karlsruhe factory were identified by a suffix G added to their model numbers. i.e. 215G. Serial numbers took the form of PA, PB, PC etc. followed by 6 digits starting at 000001 up to 999999." 

Steiffgal hopes that this special season celebrating peace, love, and joy helps bring more of those essential things to the fabric of our lives in 2018.  

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