I'll Tumble For You!

Talk about (s)tumbling onto a fantastic Steiff find! Robin was at the right place at the right time when she found this absolutely amazing and extremely rare early Steiff bear novelty. She shares,

"Hi Steiffgal,

Here's the item I told you about. He is pretty cool and definitely something I’ve never seen before. Before I received him, I thought he might be a skittle like the bear ones I already have, and the bear himself is very similar but he’s much bigger and the base is totally different.

The bear himself is 10" tall and about 5" elbow to elbow. The base is 5-1/2" in diameter and 2-1/2" high. The base is wood with some kind of metal weight inset, that allow him to rock and spin without falling over. It is quite heavy."

Wow, it is easy to lose balance over this delightful turn of last century toy. He's actually a wonderful example of Steiff's early Tumbling Bear. He's standing, unjointed, and made from an early plush material. His eyes are black, and his nose and mouth are embroidered in a very early style. He is mounted on a weighted, wooden hemisphere. This allows him to wobble about, like a very early "weeble" but not fall down. He left the factory holding a wooden stick between his paws and a chain connecting his nose to the stick - to resemble a circus bear of the time.  You can see traces of the stitching on his paws that would have held the stick in place. These real-life bears would travel from city to city at the turn of last century as part of roaming circus companies. Robin's tumbling bear was produced in 35 cm from 1899 through 1918 overall. 

Check out this tumbler in action here!

Robin's tumbler has a key role in the history of the development of the jointed Teddy bear as we know him today. In the late 1890's, Steiff produced a number of bear novelties. They were made to give the toys action and movement. The picture on the left shows a few examples of these early bear toys. Left to right, they include bears on platforms with bristles supporting them; a bear on a cart with metal wheels; and three tumblers in different sizes and configurations. The bears on the platforms with bristles would move when someone tapped the table on which they were standing - so they would sort of "shimmy" about.

Richard Steiff wanted to create far more playful, dynamic, and child-friendly versions of these static/moving bears, and he took this challenge very seriously. He studied the way real bears move at the zoo. Mohair, a fabric perfect for soft, durable toys, became available on a commercial level around 1902. He married those two facts, inserted his great creativity, and came up with the patterns for a series of fully jointed bears, starting with string jointing, then rod jointing, then disk jointing. The company's disk jointing system has not changed much since its introduction over a century ago.

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on Robin's tumbler has left you steady on your feet!

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