Getting All Wound Up Over This Amazing Auction Discovery

Good things come in threes, but sometimes in the most unexpected ways. Steiffgal, and probably a significant number of other Steiff enthusiasts, spent a few hours on Saturday, June 30th watching the annual Steiff Festival auction on the computer. Hosted by Ladenburger Spielzeugauktion GmbH and broadcast on Liveauctioneers.com, this comprehensive sale offered 183 lots of fine vintage Steiff, with prices realized ranging from 43 to 18,910 euro or about $56 to $22,131. From the business and collector's perspectives, it was very encouraging to see the number of bids and the robust results of the sale. As always, the finest and rarest items will always generate lots of interest and top dollar.

So what's the connection to the number 3? Well, the one offering that really got Steiffgal's wheels spinning in this sale was lot #78, an utterly fantastic Steiff doll on a three wheeled scooter. It was estimated at 2,500-5,000 euro and cataloged as.... 

                               

"Steiff Urboy, produced 1926, felt doll on a three-wheeled vehicle with clock mechanism drive, case is made of sheet metal, wheels are made of wood, maneuverable, 21 cm, button with long stretched F, good readable white cloth tag label, item No.: 9322 (in the literature the Urboy is wrongly mentioned with the item-No.: 9318, but that is the item-No. of the monkeys Urfips. the correct item-No. is 9322, as it was mentioned in the main catalog from 1926 ), swivel head, black glass eyes, whole clothes and cap original, while driving the Boy is pedalling with the feet, clock mechanism is intact, because of the adjustable front wheel the Urboy can drive straight ahead or in a circle, extremely rare,perfect unused original condition." 

This wind-up wonder had 82 bids and hammered at 12,500 euro ($14,629) and realized 15,250 euro ($17,848.)

There are so many things to love about this crossover item, which may help to explain its popularity on the auction block. It has enormous appeal to doll collectors, Steiff collectors, wind-up and tin toy collectors, as well as vehicle collectors. Steiff produced a series of novelty clockwork vehicles - both three and four wheeled - in the 1926 through 1929 time frame. Their drivers included this boy, a white mohair chimp, a brown mohair chimp, and a Teddy. According to the Cieslik's Button in Ear book, 724 examples of the boy were produced and 1,583 examples of the Teddy bear were produced. The 1927 catalog page advertising these high-end items is pictured here on the left, the illustration is from Carsten Esser's Steiff Kataloge 1920-1929.  

It's so easy to have a plush crush on the doll driver. His condition appears all but flawless. The little fellow has an irresistible, impish presentation and personality. Although the company started to move away from their center seamed face design in the early 1920's with the introduction of the Schlopsnies dolls, this late 1920's novelty clearly has this legacy facial construction. It is also interesting that the Urboy doll has black eyes, and not distinctive, two color glass pupil eyes, like most dolls produced after around 1910 or so. His green and blue felt outfit is relatively simple, but its hard to miss his pert yellow newsboy styled cap detailed with brown embroidery. 

His tricycle is also the wheel-deal. The chassis is made from red and yellow painted metal and houses the clockwork mechanism in its underside. The wheels are made from wood. The boy's feet are sewn to the bike's pedals, so when the toy is wound up, it appears like he is pedaling. This is very cool and life-like. Given the appeal - and the rarity - of these novelties, Steiff made replica versions of two of their 1920s-era clockwork tricycle riding monkeys in the late 1990s. You can see a demonstration of the mechanics behind this model's movement in the video posted above. It was made by filming the clockwork mechanism of a 1996 replica of the company's 1926 "Urfips" motorized tricycle monkey.

Buttoning up this discussion is a review of Urboy's IDs. As noted in the cataloging, his article number is actually 9322, not 9318 as shown in the Steiff Sortiment. 9318 is the article number of the clockwork chimp on a tricycle. It is interesting to note that 9322 means 9=clockwork, 3=mohair, and 22=22 cm.  Given he is almost entirely made from felt, it is surprising that the "3" in his numbering is not actually a "1," which means "felt." If you look at his tag, which is shown here on the left, you can see that it is made of a white linen-paper with small threads woven throughout it, probably to strengthen it. The red ear tag was introduced in 1926, so his white tag is most likely one of the last ones used in production before this change was made. 

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on this clockwork tricycle boy has been worth your time!

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