Rounding Out A Ball Animal Collection With This Unusual Steiff Rabbit

Things are really "hoppening" around here with the addition of this delightful rabbit novelty to Steiffgal's collection. Although not terribly vintage, this was the very first of his type Steiffgal had ever seen in person. She saw him in a booth at the 2023 Steiff Sommer Festival, and knew right away he would be one of her souvenirs from a delightful trip. Take a look at this funny bunny and see if he calls to you as well, even if in just a round-about sort of way.

This cheerful-earful is Steiff's Ball Rabbit. He is 16 cm tall (not including his ears), sitting, and head jointed. His ears add another 7 cm to his height. He is softly stuffed with foam. Rabbit is made from longer tan dralon. His ears, muzzle, and foot pads are made from shorter dralon, and his fuzzy chest is made from longer mohair. His face is detailed with round black and white plastic cartoon style eyes, a black hand embroidered nose, monofilament whiskers, and a funny little dimensional mouth made from fabric. He has stenciled footprints on his foot pads and light airbrush highlighting here and there to give him a little more dimension. He retains his original blue silken ribbon. He has a non-working squeaker in his belly. This guy appeared in the line from 1960-1961 in this size only.

Steiff made three ball style animals in the 1960-1961 time frame, and this rabbit is one of them. All were 16 cm, made from dralon, stuffed with foam, and featured a fuzzy mohair chest. The others were Ball Mopsy, a pug, and Ball Sulla, a cat. Overall, these ball animals are really hard to find, especially in good condition — because they were designed to be used as playthings and stuffed with foam, which deteriorates over time, and were made for only a handful of years. Steiffgal is happy to finally have all three versions in her collection. 

Finally, let's take a look at Rabbit's chest tag. It looks original to the item, with wear and loss commensurate to the toy, and the thread appears consistent to Steiff. It notes that his name is Hoppy, which would make sense given he is a rabbit. However, there is no indication in any reference materials that this model was given a name beyond simply "Ball Rabbit." However, the pug and the cat of the same design and era were given playful names, so it is possible that he was named Hoppy for consistency, but this never made it into the records. This sometimes happens when something appears in the line for a very short time. Hoppy was also the name of a running style mohair Steiff rabbit made in 8, 14 and 17 cm from 1950 through 1976. So there is a little overlap there with the name as well. But only Ball Rabbit knows for sure....

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on this unusual rounded Steiff rabbit has been a ball for you!

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