There's not room for much junk in the trunk when it comes to this happy handful. Here we have a 10 cm standing baby elephant. He is unjointed and made from blue mohair. His little face come alive with simple black button eyes, proportional ears, a slightly tucked under trunk, and ivory tusks. His mohair tail is tipped in what feels to be like woolen yarn. His red saddle cloth is vintage, but probably not original to him given its "homemade" presentation. It is decorated with gold colored embroidery. Elephant retains his long trailing "f" button and traces of his red ear tag as his Steiff IDs. 
This little guy is absolutely ele-fantastic, but exactly who is he? It's a little confusing. He doesn't EXACTLY appear in Pfeiffer's 1892-1943 Sortiment. Steiff did produced a blue standing 8 cm elephant as a "pram toy" in 1926 through 1933. He came with a bell on the tip of his trunk, a cord, a pom-pom decoration, and an ivory hanging ring. However, this pram toy did not have tusks and had black and brown glass pupil eyes. So as they say, close but no cigar with a match here. 
A bit more research finds a 10 cm blue mohair elephant with black button eyes and ivory tusks pictured in the Sortiment. However, this model is described as having eccentric wooden wheels. That wheeled model was made in 1924 only. The elephant under discussion today looks very much like the one pictured in the Sortiment, but shows no evidence of ever being on wheels - there are no stitches, holes, or indicators on the bottom of his feet that would suggest he was once "on a roll." It is Steiffgal's best guess that the elephant noted in the Sortiment was produced with or without wheels, and that was just an oversight in his cataloging. This can happen on items that were produced in limited quantities, and/or for a short period of time. 
Now for a little color commentary. Although this elephant looks grey today, if you look in his "nooks and crannies," his baby-blue coloring is obvious. Steiff introduced many items in the mid to late 1920s in happy, jelly bean colors like this, so his hue perfectly aligns with his production period. These colors - especially pink and blue - tend to really fade over time. This probably has to do with the chemistry and properties of the pigments used to make fabric color dyes last century. Steiffgal hopes you found this discussion on this little blue elephant absolutely unforgettable.
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