The Eyes Have It With This Adorable Prewar Steiff Kitten

Looking for a little something to tickle your whiskers this fine fall day? Then check out this short but sweet note from a new friend. Jenny needs help identifying a precious pet. Could it be made by Steiff? She shares,

"I was wondering if you could help me identify an old possibly Steiff cat... It feels like wool and stuffed with wood. Thanks!"

What a pretty kitty! From the looks of him, Jenny's kitten looks to be sitting, probably head jointed, and made from wool plush, not mohair. Wool plush has a more fluid, continuous look and feel to it, while mohair tends to have more of a prickly "hooked rug" appearance where the fabric backing meets up with the surface fibers. The fact that he is "stuffed with wood" is consistent with his stuffing being made from excelsior. Other distinctive features of this example include traces of airbrushed highlighting on its body, tiny pink claws, clear monofilament whiskers on his nose and forehead, a tail that wraps gently around his backside, a pink hand embroidered nose and mouth, and piercing teal and black slit style pupil eyes. His size is noted at 6.5 inches tall, or nearly 17 cm tall. 

All of those factors help to cat-alyze his likely identification. It is possible that Jenny's kitty is a rare and well loved example of the company's seldom seen prewar sitting wool plush cat. This appealing pattern was made in 10, 14, 17, 22, and 28 cm from 1929 through 1933 overall. All of these fancy felines left the factory wearing a large silken ribbon. You can see this wool plush rarity pictured here on the left, the photo is from Pfeiffer's 1892-1943 Sortiment. You can't help but notice the basic resemblance of this wool plush cat pattern to the company's most beloved sitting Susi cat design. She was produced prewar in 14, 17, 22 and 28 cm from 1936 through 1943, and then again postwar from 1948 through 1978 in 10, 12, 14, 17 and 22 cm. 

 

The timing of all of this is quite interesting. The cat under review today was made at a critical time point in the company's history. Germany entered a period of economic depression and widespread unemployment in 1929 while growing anti-German sentiment crippled Steiff's export markets. These realities triggered a number of fundamental product design, production, and distribution changes at Steiff. One very noteworthy revision was the increased use of substitute fabrics in manufacturing. As traditional toy making materials became more expensive and more challenging to source, the company started to look at alternative fabrics to use in place of mohair. This may explain why this cat debuted in wool plush - a less expensive and readily available fabric - exactly at this time. 

Steiffgal hopes this discussion of this prewar cat has added a purr-fectly pleasant paws to your day.

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