Simply The Best: Highlights From Ladenburger Spielzeugauktion's July 1, 2023 Steiff Auction Event

Last January, Ladenburger Spielzeugauktion GmbH presented the first installment of the Susan Kilgore Wiley collection of breathtaking, antique Steiff bears, animals, and novelties. This awesome event realized over $475,000 and was the talk of the international vintage Steiff collecting community. Now it's time for the second part of the sale, which is most fittingly being held on July 1st, 2023 in Giengen, Germany in association with Steiff's annual Steiff Sommer celebration. Here are three over the top items on offer as part of that auction. Steiffgal did not even know these items existed until now, they are that rare and that AMAZING. Please sit down, fasten your seatbelt, and read on!

It's the best of all worlds with this first Wiley auction highlight. Here we have lot #45, an early 20th century Steiff Teddy bear girl doll. It is cataloged by the auction house in part as:

"One of the of the highlights of the auction, probably a prototype by the Fa. STEIFF, unusual doll, felt head, blue glass eyes, bright mohair hair, with button, block letters, long trailing f, bear body, with white mohair, probably original silk ribbon and silk collar, height: 35 cm, small felt faults at the right cheek, exceptional, stronger mohair loss on the reverse of the legs and at the back, otherwise single places with slightly thin mohair, exceptional, probably an unique specimen." It has an opening bid of 1500 €.

This beautiful treasure probably dates around 1912, given her presentation, glass pupil eyes, and facial seaming. It was around that time that Steiff's proportional dolls were becoming very popular. The company was producing a number of adorable student and childlike dolls that were dressed in everyday clothes, Sunday best, and regional attire. These charming examples were even sold through FAO Schwarz in the United States! Steiffgal suspects that Steiff was looking at ways to expand their doll offering through different novelty options, and knows of a Steiff topsy-turvy style doll prototype from c. 1912. It makes perfect sense that Steiff would experiment with a doll head and a Teddy bear body, as the company specialized in both deigns and other manufacturers had these "hybrid" items in their lines. This doll bear probably did not go into production because it was very expensive and labor intensive to manufacture on a commercial scale.

This next highlight is truly on fire. Here we have lot #49, a most colorful Steiff Teddy on the go. The auction house catalogs it in part as:

"STEIFF Record-teddy, produced 1927-1930, with button, block letters, long trailing f, red fiery mohair, glass eyes, felt paws, except of minimally places in good condition, scattered thin mohair, and mohair loss, swivel head, color is wear down at the wooden wheels, height: 24 cm, length: 24 cm, extremely exceptional, very strong colors, rare." It has an opening bid of 1200 €.

Collectors will recognize this delightful pull toy as an example of the company's legacy Record pattern. This pull toy design debuted around 1912 in the form of Record Jocko, a chimp on wheels. Bears and dolls on wheels quickly followed this introduction as they made for perfect passengers on Steiff's simple but charming four wheeled cart design. According to Pfeiffer's Sortiment, this particular Record Teddy was produced in 20 and 25 cm from 1927-1930. What's so interesting about this time frame is that it exactly corresponds with the "heyday" of the appearance of brilliantly colored, tipped mohair items in the Steiff line. Steiffgal has never seen an orange tipped Steiff bear in this size, and it is possible that they were only created for this novelty, and not as a freestanding item. Other tipped mohair highlights from the "roaring 20s" include rabbits, cats, dogs, and other eye-catching pets. 

And last but not least, please check out lot #54, a musical Teddy clown bear. The auction house catalogs it in part as:

"Teddy clown, rare, with music mechanism, probably a single-item production, yellow gold mohair plush, glass eyes, bright embroidering at snout, softly stuffed, kapok filling, a rarity, with hat, standing height 39 cm, with button, block letters, long trailing f, scattered small faults at the felt paws, nice, full mohair, with music mechanism, long snaped off arms, on the reverse here and there with places with minimally mohair loss, original ruff and hat, produced c. around 1927." It has an opening bid of 1900 €.

These sorts of rarities make collectors want to break out in song! Teddy Clown bears themselves are quite rare on the market, given they were only made from 1926-1930 overall. In 1928, Steiff debuted a series of "Music-Animals" based on their most popular designs and patterns of the time. These items were standard line animals with a music box imbedded in their torsos. According to company documents, they included a Teddy bear, Petsy, Bully dogs, Molly, Cheerio, Fellow, Charly, Treff, Fluffy, a lamb, and a clown. There is no mention of a musical Teddy Clown in any materials Steiffgal can find. However, given the range of characters and novelties produced as music box toys, it is not out of the question that Steiff would have considered producing Teddy Clown as a musical edition. Perhaps this example was created as a prototype for this product development experiment.

For more information on this amazing sale to be held on July 1, 2023 and to see all of the great lots on offer, please see the auction house's website at https://www.spielzeugauktion.de.

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on these absolute auction rarities has further cataloged your interest in vintage Steiff!

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

Clowning Around With This Distinctive Steiff Pressed Felt Faced Puppet

Steiffgal's not clowning around when she says she's over the moon excited about her latest Steiff acquisition. Just this week, she welcomed a delightful and most unusual Steiff clown puppet into her hug. Not only is he irresistibly adorable, he also has a really interesting place in Steiff's product development timeline. Check out this gentle joker and see what makes him so unique from the design and historical perspectives.

Please give a round of applause to this happy handful! Here we have Steiff's Kasperl Clown or Punch Clown puppet. He is 17 cm tall. His head, hands, and ears are made from felt. His body is made from a piece of red, yellow, blue, and green flowered calico fabric. He comes to life with brown and black glass pupil eyes, a dimensional face, hand painted facial features, and yellow mohair hair. His clown costume includes a blue silk neck ruff and a felt hat decorated with a red pom-pom. These accessories are quite similar to those seen on Steiff's Teddy Clown bears from 1926 through 1930. This clown puppet was made in this size only and took center stage in the Steiff catalog from 1936 through 1943. 

Steiff created a few "theme and variation" items based on this basic clown pattern.  The company often did this with popular designs and characters. As such, the clown was also produced as a 35 cm clown doll from 1936 through 1940 and as a 25 cm soft tumbling Roly Clown from 1937 through 1943.  For reference, the clown doll and Roly Clown are pictured below; the photos are from Pfeiffer's 1892-1943 Steiff Sortiment Book.

Doll version of the clown

There are several very interesting details and features about this clown puppet that should give collectors the giggles. 

The first includes his numerous "debut roles" in Steiff's product line.  This clown puppet appears to be the very first "non-animal" puppet manufactured by Steiff overall. In addition, he is the only "non-animal" puppet made by the company pre-World War II. However, Steiff did produce many "people puppets," including clowns, Santa Claus, dwarfs, and fairytale characters, from the late 1950's onward.

Roly version of the clown

The second is his actual construction. This puppet has a seamless pressed felt face head, not a center seamed head, like most early felt dolls made by Steiff.   Although Steiff’s better known center seamed dolls were popular and sold well, the company had been actively experimenting with alternative ways of manufacturing felt heads since the early 1920’s. The goal was to eliminate the center seam and substitute the "two part" face with one made from seamless pressed felt. This proved quite challenging to do, both from the manufacturing and design perspectives. The company finally solved the problem of facial integrity by reinforcing the molded felt material with a plastic backing - almost like an interior support mask. Once this process was put into production, Steiff manufactured at least 27 different full doll models with this pressed felt face design between 1938 and 1943, in addition to the clown pattern under discussion here today.

Distinct, sewn on ears

Listen up for his third design feature. Yes, this clown doll head design has very distinct ears. Unlike his other pressed felt faced doll cousins, this pressed felt faced clown has distinctive felt ears that are attached to his head via two stitches. All the other pressed felt faced dolls of his era have ears that are much smaller, less distinct, and integral to their heads. Clown's ears are more like those seen on most of Steiff's earlier felt center seamed dolls. It is interesting to note that this pressed felt faced clown design was launched on a commercial scale in 1936, one year before the general pressed felt faced doll line was launched. Perhaps the ear treatment on the clown head is a "nod" to the traditional ear treatment on the company's earlier center seamed felt faced dolls?

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on this unique pressed felt faced clown hand puppet has been a one of kind experience for you!

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

This Huge Steiff Surprise Appeared Right Out Of The Blue!

Steiffgal's about to share a GIANT surprise with you... because it certainly was to her!  One of the most magical things about Steiff is that "new" vintage treasures seem to always appear "out of the blue...." and in this case, that's exactly what we have here!  Take a look at this note from a reader from the northeast part of the USA who asks about a larger than life family heirloom. Jeanne writes in part:

"Hi, 

I was hoping that you would have some information about our big Steiff Teddy Bear.  Here is a photo of him wearing a top hat and ribbons on his ears. 

Our Teddy was given to my grandmother when she was a child; Grandma is now 91 years old. My great-grandmother was shopping during the Great Depression when she saw this huge Teddy Bear is a shopkeeper’s display window. She wanted to buy it for my grandmother who was her only child. She brought the Teddy Bear home on the bus; I guess it was quite a struggle. The Teddy took up a whole seat by himself! My great-grandmother lived way out in the country so it was a long ride.

Soon afterwards, my great-grandmother passed away and my grandmother was raised by a nanny.

We really don’t know too much about our Teddy Bear. He’s got blue eyes and he’s very large. He’s about 75 cm while sitting. He’s got enormous feet; his foot pads measure about 10” long. He’s got a Steiff button in his ear. He’s in okay condition considering that he’s been mauled by a dozen grandchildren over the years. He’s been very well enjoyed by the past 4 generations of our family.

One of his ears has a tear near his head. He’s got a few loose threads hanging from his nose. One of his foot pads has some loose stitches. His feet have a few small stains. His fur is a bit threadbare and faded in a few areas. His growler doesn’t work. He’s getting droopy from age. But we still love him!

My grandfather used to display the bear on floats during parades. He enjoyed dressing the bear up. 

I really enjoyed your website. I love to see pictures of Steiff bears.

Thanks so much, 

Jeanne"

WOWZA...Steiffgal's gotta catch her breath on this one.  What Jeanne has here is a humongous Steiff Petsy bear.  This bear is simply awesome in so many ways, including the fact that his entire history with Jeanne's family has been documented over the years.  From the historical and collector's perspective, Petsy had a very short, but very sweet, appearance in the Steiff catalog, only appearing from 1928 through the very early 1930's.  What made him different than past designs, among other factors, was his prominent middle facial seam which ran vertically from his forehead across his snout, and his metal lined ears, which allowed them to be posed in many fun and comical ways. 

During his years in the line, Petsy was produced in two "flavors."  The first was a brown tipped mohair version with blue eyes (like Jeanne's here) with pink/red facial and claw stitching.  Some of these tipped Petsy bears had black and blue traditional glass pupil eyes; others had the more playful black and blue cartoon style eyes.  The second Petsy version was made from brass mohair; they were detailed with brown and black pupil eyes and black facial and claw stitching. The tipped version appeared in ten sizes ranging from 15 to 50 cm sitting (or 22 to 75 cm standing) while the brass version was only produced in one size:  22 cm sitting or 32 cm standing.  Tipped Petsy was also produced as a musical Ted in 17 and 20 cm (or 25 and 30 cm standing), on a four wheeled rolling cart in 20 and 25 cm, as a 17 cm puppet, and as a 17 cm purse. 

Notice that a 75 cm sitting or 115 cm standing version of Petsy is not mentioned here? 

Steiff's big bruins have always generated huge interest with collectors and those interested in the company's product design evolution.  And there is evidence and precedent for 115 cm sized bears in the late 1920's and early 1930's.  For example, the 1892-1943 Steiff Sortiment book documents the following three bears in 115 cm (standing size): a "Happy" Teddy bear, in the line in 1926; a Teddy clown in the line from 1926 through 1930; and a Dicky in the line from 1931 through 1935.  Clearly, the company produced a 115 cm Petsy as well; perhaps so few were made that the company did not keep a sample of one for the archives or just unintentionally omitted keeping a record of their manufacture.  

Now for the big question, the really big question... his possible worth.  As always, Steiffgal is not a formal appraiser, and fully believes something is worth what someone will pay for it.  She has also not seen the bear firsthand -yet- so she cannot truly take into account structural issues that cannot be captured on film well, such as rips, tears, odors, and dry rot.  It is interesting to note that a 35 cm/49 cm (sitting and standing size) brown tipped, blue eyed Petsy sold for £23,600 or close to $40,000 at the 2012 London Toy Auction; this gorgeous example is pictured here on the left.  Given that Jeanne's bear is an original, early Petsy (one of the most sought after Steiff bear designs of all times,) his unusual, uncatalogued size, and fabulous provenance, and assuming that he is in as hearty condition as his owner describes, he may value in the $40,000 to $50,000+ range today.

Steiffgal hopes that this discussion on Jeanne's Petsy has got you dreaming about Steiff in a super sized way!

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