A "rosa" by any other name... would ALMOST be as beautiful as this sweet Steiff doll! Steiffgal recently had the pleasure of handling a very vintage button-in-ear doll that came from a fine and well curated collection down south. Take a look at this lovely lady in red... and be tickled pink, for sure!
Here we have Steiff's charming Rosa girl. She is 28 cm tall, fully jointed, and made from felt. She has a short blonde inset wig, proportional blue and black glass pupil eyes, and a prominent vertical facial seam. Her perfectly to scale nose is dimensional and she has painted eyebrows. Rosa wears a red felt dirndl style dress with black trim, a white cotton blouse, white apron, a white underskirt and underwear, knit socks, red shoes, and a red felt hat that perfectly matches her dress. Steiffgal believes the tan lace on her dress is probably replaced. Rosa retains her tiny long trailing "f" Steiff button in-ear. This beautifully attired doll appeared in the line in 28, 35, 43, 50, 60, and 75 cm from 1908-1926 overall. So this example is the smallest standard sized produced.
Rosa has a few features that make her particularly interesting from the timeline and product development perspectives.
First is her facial stitching. In addition to her vertical center seam, she has small horizontal seams near her eyes. Steiff specifically added in this design feature to their line of proportional and endearing "children" line, starting around 1908. These extra seams gave the face a pleasing roundness and further emphasized its youthful symmetry.
Second are her hands. Rosa has simple, rounded embroidered style hands, suggesting that she was made at the earliest point in her production timeline. Steiff's first dolls had hands that looked more like fists; "fingers" were indicated by embroidery stitches. You can see this in the photo here on the left. By 1910 or so, most Steiff dolls had "conventional" style hands, with prominent and individual fingers.
And finally is her blouse. Her white cotton shirt fits perfectly, and is correct to her period and design, but is slightly different than the one pictured in the standard Steiff reference books. Rosa's shirt has lace and lots of tucks and details; the one pictured in Pfeiffer's Sortiment is much plainer. Rosa's shirt may be a replacement, or not. This doll model appeared in the line for nearly two decades. Over the years, clothing styles on dolls tended to be updated a bit, and generally were simplified over time. This was usually for cost savings, labor savings, and/or supply chain management issues. Because Rosa was probably "born" around 1908-1909, it is possible that she is wearing a fancy, original blouse that was streamlined to a more simple version over time. Only she knows for sure!
Steiffgal hopes this discussion on Steiff's Rosa has brought a bouquet of happiness to your day.
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