The devil made me do it! But in this case, it's all in good fun! Check out this note from a new friend who asks about an unusual item she found among her Mother's things. What do we have here? And could this man in red be made by Steiff? Darcie shares:"I have a red devil doll with a Steiff tag but it is not attached. So I am not sure if it was made by Steiff. I thought Steiff’s have the metal button/tag on them. Can you help?"
Well hell-o handsome! What a great find! Although not specified, it would be Steiffgal's best bet that this devil doll is nearly identical to the blue felt version Steiff made of the Duke University Blue Devil mascot. The Duke Devil was jointed, with a felt body and a rubber head with horns. He was detailed with a blue felt suit, long blue felt tail, and white felt shoes, and carried a three pointed spear. He appeared in the Steiff line from 1954-1958, and then again from 1959-1963 as part of Steiff's early post war series of university and institutional mascots. These charming mascots were featured in F.A.O. Schwarz's catalogs in the early 1950s.
So what might be the story behind this uncatalogued red version? Steiffgal suspects it might be a sample or very low edition as she has never seen or heard of a red version previous to this one. The handwritten number "7128" on the early postwar ear tag provided by Darcie refers to 7= in caricature, 1= felt, and 28= 28 cm tall. This makes sense in terms of this guy for sure. 7128 is also the number of the earliest blue Duke Blue Devil mascot edition. Perhaps this red felt version with the US Zone tag and raised script button was made in the c. 1951-1953 time frame (before the launch of the Duke version) when you see items with the US Zone tag, for the most part. It is entirely possible that Steiff saw greater market potential and interest in making this rubber devil doll in blue as the Duke mascot than simply in generic red.
Steiffgal hopes this discussion on this rare devil doll has fired up your interest in the company's unusual mid-century production.
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