Great Scot! Check out this utterly charming prewar pup on wheels. Despite his small size, he's got a few interesting "time capsule" details that help to date him to a "T". Read on to learn more.
This bearded beauty is the wheel-deal indeed! Scotty is 17 cm tall, standing, and head jointed. His body and head are made from grey and light black mohair plush fabric. His ears are made from pitch black mohair. Scotty is detailed with proportional black and brown round glass pupil eyes, a black embroidered nose and mouth, and dark pink embroidered claws on each of his four paws. His ears are lined in black mohair. The dog is mounted on a metal carriage and glides along on four blue wooden eccentric wheels. He retains his original collar and brass bell. His collar is white and dark blue or black leather, and closes with a ring and two (now very rusty) Steiff buttons. He retains his long trailing "f" button in ear and traces of his chest tag as his Steiff IDs.
This model was made in 14, 17, and 22 cm (measured vertically, without wheels) from 1932-1943. He was produced in grey and black mohair plush from 1932 through 1934; after 1934 he appeared in all black mohair. Given those dates, it is safe to say that this guy was "born" in the 1932-1934 time frame.
Scotty dogs debuted in the Steiff line in 1930 and were an immediate success with customers. Their size, personality, and proportions translated well into soft toys designs, and Steiff created a number of sitting, standing, wheeled, and novelty versions over the next decade. Some had round glass pupil eyes like this example, while others had brown, white, and black almond shaped glass eyes. Steiffgal has never been able to figure out why that was the case, but both style of eyes are original to Steiff.
The Scotty under discussion here has two distinctive early 1930s-era details that Steiffgal has not seen on items produced during any other time. The first is his body fabric, which is a mostly black mohair plush with grey fiber details. It is not "spiky" like traditional mohair, but smoother and more elegant, with the longer fibers really resembling a dog's coat. This lovely material was used for awhile on the company's Scotties, but then disappeared in 1934 - about the time that things really started getting difficult at Steiff - and throughout Germany due to geopolitical realities. It is possible that the grey and black fabric was expensive, and the company was trying to save money on materials, and/or that it was no longer being produced, and/or it was entirely allocated by the government for wartime material production. Through the early 1940s, Scotty dogs would go on to be produced in mohair, wool plush, cotton plush, and silk plush - apparently coming to life in the fabrics available at the time.
Also of note is this Scotty's prominent leather collar. Steiffgal has only noted this woven style, light and dark belled collar on dogs from the early 1930s. It is possible that this accessory was designed and produced to give the dogs wearing it a more "upscale" look and feel. The collar, which is not removable, needed to be manually attached to the dog and finished with two inserted buttons. This of course required many more assembly steps than the signature, simple red buckled collar which would be used on the model just a few years later.
Steiffgal hopes this discussion on this early 1930s Scotty on wheels was a joy ride for you!
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