Hans Down, This Prewar Steiff Teddy Bear Has Amazing ID!

This Steiff blog entry is designed to test your "metal" in the most interesting way possible. Check out this delightful and purely period prewar Steiff Ted that Steiffgal has named Hans. He recently joined Steiffgal's hug and previously belonged to a Canadian collector. Can you believe he's close to 90 years old? Indeed, he does check out in every way as a late prewar cub... with a very special and little known detail that helps to narrow down his dating. But more about that in just a bit.

This little love of a cub is a wonderful time capsule of Steiff's mid-1930s to mid-1940s Teddy bear design directives. In terms of his physical properties, Hans stands at 10 inches/25 cm tall and is made from yellow-blonde mohair. He has a back hump, but it is less pronounced than the company's earlier bear editions. He is fully jointed and has both felt hand and foot pads. Each pad is detailed with four black claws. His feet are long and narrow, and his wrists turn slightly upward. Hans' face comes alive with proportional black and brown glass pupil eyes, an unshaven muzzle, and a black hand embroidered nose and mouth. Hans' side-squeeze squeaker works, once in a while.

Hans also has a few "intangible" properties that tie him to the late prewar period. He has a very distinctive long, lean, and somewhat "pensive" appearance. He's a "no nonsense" Ted indeed. This "look and feel" is often seen on Steiff's prewar bear production from the early 1930s onward. It is possible that bears created at this time reflected the feelings of the seamstresses making them, as the 1930s and 1940s were very stressful decades in Germany due to challenging and ongoing social, political, and economic realities. In contrast, consider Steiff's early postwar bear production - from the early 1950s onward. Newly introduced midcentury patterns like Zotty and Jackie and the company's re-engineered "Original Teddy Bears" are noted for their jolly faces, rotund bodies, and playful personalities.

Perhaps the most concrete metric in terms of dating Hans is his unexpected branding. He sports an unusual BRASS colored Steiff button. It is the short trailing "f" style and 6 mm in diameter. This button appeared on a few items from 1933/34 through 1943. He also has traces of his yellow linen ear tag, but the information on it is not legible. The yellow tag was introduced around 1934, which suggests Hans' birth year falls roughly between 1934 and 1943. This is one of a handful of times Steiffgal has ever seen this brass button, and Hans is only the second item in her collection of antique Steiff treasures bearing this distinctive trademark. Most of the time, for items produced in the mid 1930's through early 1940's time frame, Steiff used a silver colored short trailing "f" button. It is possible that Steiff substituted brass buttons for silver colored ones during this time for economic or supply chain reasons, but Steiffgal does not know for certain. Whatever the reason, finding items like Hans with this late prewar branding is a rare and wonderful experience for sure!

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on the company's rarer prewar brass buttons has brought the topic full circle for you.

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Hans-Down, This Is One Amazing Antique Steiff Doll

Well hello, handsome! Country life certainly agrees with you. Today's special guest is a delightful example of Steiff's extraordinary, first quarter of the 20th century cloth doll production. Please say hello to Hans, the Swabian farmer.

Hans-down, this is one delightful doll. Hans has human proportions and stands 35 cm tall.  He is made from felt and is fully jointed. His hands have stitched fingers. His face comes to life with a brown mohair wig which has faded to silver over time, black button eyes, a prominent vertical facial seam, light blushing to his cheeks, and two horizontal seams by his eyes. His lips and nostrils are delicately defined by pink paint. Hans wears a traditional southern German (Swabian) farmers outfit, including a red buttoned felt vest detailed with five tiny Steiff buttons, black felt pants, a white cotton collared shirt, black tie shoes and white socks, and a black felt hat. He retains his tiny long trailing "f" button-in-ear as his Steiff ID. Hans was made in 28, 35, 43, 50, 60, and 75 cm from 1908-1927. 

Hans appeared in Steiff's line for nearly two decades - and for good reasons! His charming presentation, regional outfit typical to southern Germany (where the Steiff factory is located), and ties to a popular Brothers Grimm fairy tale probably explain why - but more about that in just a bit! So given his long production period, how can you tell roughly when he might have been made?  Here are a few general guidelines to help approximately date Steiff's center-seamed faced cloth dolls from the early 1900s-late 1920s.

1.  Body: The earliest ones had cartoon-like or exaggerated features; starting around 1908 the company started producing children, adults, and soldiers with human proportions.

2.  Clothing: The earliest ones had clothing mostly or entirely integral to their bodies; starting around 1908 children and adult dolls with removable clothing were introduced on a large scale. Soldiers usually had most or all of their uniforms integral to their bodies.

3.  Eyes: The earliest ones had black shoe button eyes; starting around 1910 or so glass pupil eyes became the norm.

4.  Hands: The earliest ones had "fist" style hands; starting around 1910 or so fingered hands became the norm.

5.  Materials: The earliest dolls were produced in felt and/or velvet. Dolls with felt heads and linen bodies and/or limbs were produced during the WWI era (around 1914-1919). All felt dolls appeared in the line from around 1905-1914 and then again from around 1920 through the late 1920s.

If you overlay these guidelines on the Hans under review today, this model was most likely produced in the c. 1909-1911 time frame, give or take a bit.

Colleagues who study both Steiff and the history of literature suggest that Hans just might be the Hans of the Brothers Grimm "Clever Hans" story. The title of the story is meant to be ironic, as Hans is pretty much the opposite of clever. In a nutshell, Hans is "a day late and a dollar short" on a number of common sense tasks. These mis-steps ultimately result in the loss of his fiance. You can read, or listen to that short tale here. In 1913, Steiff created a print ad titled "Clever Hans" featuring this farmer doll doing something both foolish and endearing at the same time. This marketing piece is featured above; you can click on it to make it larger. The picture is from D. Ayers & D. Harrison's Advertising Art of Steiff, Teddy Bears & Playthings.

Steiffgal hopes you've found this Hans the Farmer quite the charmer!

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