Can't Help But Crow Over This Latest Prewar Steiff Find!

Welcome to our next Steiff egg-cellent adventure! Steiffgal spotted this fine feathered friend on an online sales channel and just couldn't resist his impish personality and adorable presentation. Turns out, he's pretty rare, too! Check out this prewar, bitty barnyard buddy and see what makes him so interesting from the design and product development perspectives.

Size defies with this tiny feathered friend! Here we have Steiff's smallest sized prewar rooster. He is about 8 cm, standing, unjointed, and made from blonde mohair. His feet are made from metal which has been painted orange. His tail feathers are made from elegantly cut and shaped brown felt. His face and waddle are made from red felt, and he sports black button eyes. Rooster was produced in 8, 17, 22, and 28 cm in this specific color combination from 1930 through 1937 overall. This smallest size was made for one year only, in 1933. Although this example has lost his IDs to time, these baby birds would have left the factory with their button and tag placed on their felt back feathers or worn like a bracelet around one of their metal legs.  

This little guy has two (well, two and a half) subtle, but interesting features of note. 

First is his coloring. Most people think of Steiff's prewar roosters as being very colorful, often with green feather detailing. And, Steiff did make a very similar rooster design in this more vivid color palate in 8, 17, 22, and 28 cm from 1930 through 1943 overall. The little guy under review here today is from a lesser known series of 1930s-era tan and brown roosters. Given that the ones with the green details were produced for a much longer period suggests that they also sold better and were more popular with customers. 

Second is his legs and feet. They are made from orange painted metal. Steiff has a long history of making their early prewar birds with metal feet and legs, but they were either "slipcovered" in felt or wrapped with string. As far as Steiffgal can tell, these 8 cm mohair roosters introduced in 1933 might have been the first full bodied birds with painted metal legs, complete with their requisite poultry "spurs" just above the ankles.

And the half? Well, coincidence or not, Steiff debuted its line of woolen miniature birds in 1931. These first mini guys, and all the company's prewar standing pom-pom style birds moving forward, had painted metal legs and feet almost identical to the ones seen on the smallest prewar mohair rooster. It is possible that by 1933 - when the smallest mohair roosters debuted - that the company had perfected their metal legs and feet production technology to the point that this design element could be implemented on other more sophisticated patterns. For example, here on the left, you can see tiny rooster's metal legs and somewhat twisted toes (guess he might be having a little foot arthritis after a century!) and the metal legs and toes of his woolen miniature owl friend from 1934.

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on this little bird with interesting leg features has you standing tall. 

Have a question about one of your Steiff treasures? Let's talk! Click here!

Check Out This Bearded Beauty From The Steiff Archives!

It's easy to be all smiles over this next Steiff mystery. Check out this note from a friend in Germany, who has just added a very special bearded beauty to his collection. But who exactly is this rarity, and what might be the back story behind him? Orlando writes:

"I bought a sitting Schnauzer from the Steiff archive, which I can't find in any book. He has the number 3530, which is written on the archive tag. He has a leather collar, his breastplate, and his ear flag with a button. The pressure voice, works. Maybe you can tell me something about the dog. Was it perhaps intended for the American market? Thank you for your efforts. I'm looking forward to your reply."

This darling doggie is an unusual version of the Steiff's popular and legacy Tessie Schnauzer design. These pretty pooches were made in 10, 14, 22, and 28 cm from 1954 through 1976. Tessie dogs produced for the standard line were standing and made from long, light grey mohair. They had irresistible faces that came to life with black and brown pupil eyes, a black hand embroidered mouth, a happy pink tongue, and pert triangular shaped ears. Their accessory was a red leather collar.

Orlando's version has the same general look and feel as the standard line issue Tessie dogs, with a few key differences:

• 1. Standard line Tessie was standing and Orlando's is sitting. 

• 2. Standard line Tessie was made from mohair and Orlando's appears to be made from a different sort of fabric. 

• 3. Standard line Tessie has a closed mouth and Orlando's has an open, smiling mouth lined in velvet - sort of like those seen on Steiff's early 1950s Cockie Cocker Spaniels. 

• 4. Standard line Tessie came in sizes up to 28 cm and Orlando's appears to be larger.

So what does this all mean? The Steiff archive tag, with the numbers 3530 and 1955 on it, does help to shed some light on the dog. These numbers translate to 3=sitting, 5=wool plush, and 30=30 cm tall. So his fabric is in part wool plush, he is 30 cm tall, and he was made in 1955.

Now let's talk about his unusual form - sitting instead of standing. The sitting version was sampled in 1955, one year after standing Tessie's introduction. Steiffgal has two plausible ideas why Steiff tried out a version of their Tessie Schnauzer dog in sitting form.  

The first has to do with growing the company's overseas presence and market position. It was not uncommon for Steiff to make design tweaks to its standard line, postwar dogs and present them as exclusives to F.A.O. Schwarz and other high end stores in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s. For example, Steiff produced a standing Dally Dalmatian (the standard line version was sitting), a sitting black and white Cockie (the standard line version was standing), and an open mouthed Biggie Beagle (the standard line version had a closed mouth) as specials for F.A.O. Schwarz. This sitting Tessie might have been proposed for an exclusive for the USA, but never put into production for one reason or another.

The second has to do with regular business product line extension. If a design is great and selling well - why not make it in a theme and variation form? The best analogy Steiffgal can come up with here is Steiff's foray into creating a postwar sitting Arco German Shepherd. Postwar, Arco has always appeared in the catalog standing. Steiffgal has seen just a few of the sitting versions here and there, but has never seen them documented in any reference book as a standard line item. In 2020, a 25 cm sitting Arco with all IDs sold at auction; it generated 12 bids and hammered at €2,300 / $2,481. His cataloging read, in part... 

"Arco, button, chest label and cloth tag label, cloth tag label is worn, sitting 25 cm, flat STEIFF button with embossed cursive writing in ear, item-No. 3325, cloth tag label on ear isn't readable, neck mark, Arco, mohair stuffed with wood wool , brown/black glass eyes, black nose/ mouth decoration, always 3 claws, press voice is faulty, red leather collar, this Alsatian Arco in sitting version was planned by the company STEIFF 1963 as novelty in different sizes , but wasn't put into the assortment, it were probably only a few sample items produced, very nice, unused original condition, extremely rare STEIFF rarity, expertise by the company STEIFF GmbH Giengen is enclosed." Here on the left you can see this sitting version of Arco, the image is from LiveAuctioneers. 

It is not clear why these sitting versions of Tessie and Arco never went into full blown production. Steiffgal suspects it has to do with production and labor costs, and/or market share or other business factors. These kinds of production decisions almost always have an economic element to them. But only they know for sure - and their lips are sealed!

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on Orlando's archival Tessie has been one for the books!

Have a question about one of your Steiff treasures? Let's talk! Click here!