This Fully Jointed Prewar Cat Has Quite The Tail To Tell!

Paws and check out this next Steiff surprise! Steiffgal was recently asked about a wah-hoo good Steiff prewar rarity that probably every collector in the world would love to add to their meow mix. Check out this fabulous feline and see what makes her so interesting from the design and product development perspectives. 

Here we have Steiff's early and delightful mohair cat. She is fully disk jointed - i.e., all limbs, head AND TAIL!! - and made from black mohair. She measures about 21 cm wide (nose to tush, not including her tail) and about 17 cm tall. She has tan claws, round and early green and black glass slit pupil style eyes, and a simple pink hand embroidered nose and mouth. She also retains her tiny long trailing "f" style button. You can see her ID close up in the image below. 

According to Pfeiffer's Sortiment, this rarely seen design was made in 17, 22, and 28 cm (measured vertically, top of head to toes) in grey or black mohair from 1913-1916 overall. You can see this catalog listing here on the left, the image is from Pfeiffer's prewar reference book. Although this one under discussion today does not have a squeaker, Pfeiffer notes that the item was produced with a squeaker, and those may have appeared in the larger sizes where the body cavity was large enough to hold this apparatus in place. 

There are two key things that make this cat purr-fect in every way. 

First, the color is lovely and rare, and its timing is intriguing. The black versions were actually made only in 1913, which is one year after the company produced a series of black mohair bears in tribute to the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. So it is possible that the mohair used on some of these black cats was identical to, or from the same rolls of mohair used to create the company's now legacy Titanic Mourning Bears.

The second is its jointing. Steiff produced a number of uber-jointed items starting around 1910 or so. These included rabbits with long jointed ears, begging squirrels with jointed bushy tails, and standing dogs and cats with jointed tails, among others. Less than a decade prior, Richard Steiff was just beginning to work on ways to create basic jointing on the company's doll and animal production, and Steiff's offerings were very basic animals in simple, stationary forms. 

So it is really amazing how quickly the concept of jointing impacted the company's product design and development trajectory - basically zero to sixty in just a handful of years. However, in the big picture, these extensively jointed items did not last long in the line. This is probably because they were very labor intensive and expensive to produce - and the extra jointing might not have paid out in either ROI or additional sales. 

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on this rare and early black cat has tickled your whiskers!

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

Watching Steiff Record Making History In Person!

Stop the presses! Steiff history has been made again! Check out this article that Steiffgal prepared for the online news source Auction Daily detailing the sale of Mrs. Wiley's all but perfect 1912 black mohair Steiff Titanic Bear! He is pictured here on the left, and the photo is from Ladenburger Spielzeugauktion GmbH. Here is the story in its entirety - it was originally published on July 23, 2023. Thank you to Auction Daily for allowing Steiffgal to share this fantastic news!

On July 1st, 2023, the auction house Ladenburger Spielzeugauktion GmbH of Ladenburg, Germany presented their Special Steiff Auction in Giengen, Germany - the home of the Margarete Steiff GmbH factory. The Steiff Company is best known for designing and producing the fully jointed Teddy bear as we know him today starting in 1902. This signature, annual sale is traditionally held during the Steiff Company's "Steiff Sommer" event, a three day long family-centric fair that includes carnival rides, a petting zoo, food and souvenir vendors, and button-in-ear activities. This year, the auction included the second half of the Susan Kilgore Wiley collection, an outstanding collection of Steiff prewar bears, animals, novelties, and absolute rarities. The first half of this collection was sold in January, 2023 and realized over $475,000.

The highlight of this midsummer sale was lot #82, an extraordinarily rare, fully jointed 50 cm black mohair Steiff Titanic Mourning Bear. This bear was the pride and joy of Mrs. Wiley's collection and was accompanied by photos and ephemera related to it. (As a matter of fact, she named her car's license plate after him as well... as you can see on the photo on the left!) She bought the bear at Sotheby’s in London in 1990 for over $40,000; that purchase made international collecting headlines at the time. Since 2000, original antique Steiff Titanic Mourning Bears have rarely come up for auction. When they do, they usually trade hands in about the $20,000-40,000 range. Mrs. Wiley's Titanic Mourning Bear had a starting bid of 4,500 euro, but there was talk the Steiff collecting community that the bear could easily realize six figure, it was so outstanding. They were right - sort of. 

There was great anticipation in the gallery as lot #82 came up for sale. The auction house noted that this bear had five international bidders competing for the bear on telephone lines. However, the winning bidder was live in the audience! This is somewhat unusual in the auction world with sales of this magnitude. Auctioneer Pia Fast Seidel was at the podium and skillfully managed the blizzard of bids and interest in this once-in-a-lifetime lot. Mrs. Wiley's Titanic Mourning Bear would go on to hammer at 180,000 euro or $202,020, and realize $250,505. 

You can watch this sale on YouTube as it happened live by clicking here or watching the embedded video below.

So how does this rank in terms of record sale prices for antique Teddy bears? The most expensive Teddy bear of antique origins to date was a Steiff bear owned by Colonel Bob Henderson named Teddy Girl. She was sold by Christie's in London for £110,000 ($171,600) on December 5th, 1994. However, Mrs. Wiley's Teddy bear traded hands at over a quarter million dollars - breaking this previous high mark by over $78,000! 

There are many factors that made this 1912 Steiff Titanic Mourning Bear so incredibly special. These included a perfect storm of history, rarity, condition, and being at the right place at the right time. It is also possible that the recent spike in interest in all things Titanic, because of the headline making submarine disaster, also further cast the spotlight on Mrs. Wiley's extraordinary bear on offer. (Here on the left you can see Steiffgal in the Steiff museum gallery with Mrs. Wiley's Titanic bear, along with her google-eyed Petsy. These two cubs were the stars of the show for sure!)

There are many factors that made this 1912 Steiff Titanic Mourning Bear so incredibly special. These included a perfect storm of history, rarity, condition, and being at the right place at the right time. It is also possible that the recent spike in interest in all things Titanic, because of the headline making submarine disaster, also further cast the spotlight on Mrs. Wiley's extraordinary bear on offer.

In terms of the bear's place in history, Steiff's Titanic Mourning Bears are tied to one of the most significant worldwide events of the 20th century. In the early 1900s, Steiff produced a number of all black mohair bears for the general marketplace. However, these did not sell very well and the thought at the time was that they were scary for children. So the company stopped making them. Then, in 1912, the Titanic disaster struck. At that time, nearly everyone in England was personally touched by this event, or had a friend or relative who was. The entire country was in shock and mourning. In response, Steiff produced a handful of all black mohair bears with red felt behind their eyes - to indicate sadness and crying - for the English market. (Here on this picture on the left you can see members of Mrs. Wiley's family and Steiffgal talking to a photographer sent from the Washington Post to cover this sale. As you can see, this very special bear caught the eye of collectors on nearly every continent!)

This black bear also was in breathtaking shape with a very special feature. It retained its Steiff button and featured the company's most desirable "center seam" face construction. In the early 1900's, every seventh bear that Steiff made had a seam down the center of its face to make the most efficient use of the mohair fabric used to create them. The dimensions of the fabric supplied at the time were such that the Steiff could manufacture six full heads from it, but there was some remaining material from this cutting process. As such, Steiff found a way to "patch" these remainders into another head and as such not waste any fabric. This was the first center seamed black mohair Titanic Mourning Bear to come to public auction, as far as this author could unearth. (Here on this picture on the left you can see Mrs. Wiley's bear enjoying some time in her garden. The sunlight on his face makes his center seam especially prominent!)

Steiffgal hopes you've enjoyed witnessing a breathtaking and probably once in a lifetime bit of Steiff history!

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

Breathtaking Bear Beauties on Offer at Ladenburger Spielzeugauktion's 2023 Special Steiff Auction in Giengen

Can you bear it? Ladenburger Spielzeugauktion's July 1st, 2023 Special Steiff Auction in Giengen is presenting one of the finest lineups of vintage to antique button-in-ear collectibles in memory. Many of those wah-hoo good treasures are from the collection of Susan Kilgore Wiley. Ladenburger sold the first half of her over-the-moon great hug in January, 2023. This second sale presents even more Wiley temptations, including some of the world's most fantastic and aspirational Steiff bears Steiffgal has ever seen! Here are three extraordinary ones that really caught her eye, and why. 

The first can-you-bear it bear is lot #64, a most unusual Teddy Clown bear. It has a starting bid of 1,300 euro and is cataloged by the auction house as:

"Clown-bear, exceptional, with button, block letters, long trailing f, minimally rests of the red cloth tag label, big blue glass eyes, bright embroidering at snout, and claw embroidering, strong fiery mohair, long snaped off arms, hump, 33 cm, except of small faults felt paws in very nice condition, with ruff, without hat, very expressive."

It's really the best of two legacy Steiff worlds with this terrific temptation. At first glance, he sort of looks like a Petsy the Baby Bear with his tipped mohair, pink hand embroidered nose and mouth, and blue eyes. But, he does not have the signature center facial seam construction or wire lined ears as seen on Steiff's Petsy cubs. But, he has his factory original neck ruff, and these were not put on any models other than Steiff's Teddy Clown bears - at least as far as Steiffgal knows! It is also important to note that this bear's detailing and configuration is not noted in Pfeiffer's Sortiment books. This suggests that very few were produced. Steiffgal suspects that his "birthday" was probably in the mid to late 1920s time frame, when both Petsy and Teddy Clown made their appearances in the catalog. This is only the second of his type Steiffgal knows of.

And speaking of Petsy - this second can-you-bear it bear is lot #15, an insanely rare and equally adorable Petsy bear. It has a starting bid of 1,600 euro and is cataloged by the auction house as:

"One of the of the highlights of the this year's STEIFF-GIENGEN-auction, Petsy, produced around 1930, with seam at the middle of head, nice, full, pointed mohair, rare cross-eyed, with button, block letters, long trailing f, bright embroidering at snout, long snaped off arms, hump, big ears, original felt paws with flaws here and there, and scattered spotty mohair loss at neck, hump, ears, and shoulder, otherwise very nice condition, nice strong color of the mohair, standing height 50 cm, extremely rare, extremely expressive, an unusual rarity."

Steiffgal is pretty certain that this eye-catching (pun intended) rarity is on every single Steiff collector's dream wish list! It goes without saying that Petsy bears do incredibly well at auction, with one selling for a mind boggling 66,000 euro at a Ladenburger sale in January, 2023. However, this particular one, with black and blue cartoon eyes, is simply off the charts when it comes to his rarity, expression, and presentation. Steiffgal would not be surprised if this example trades hands near or even above this previous record! And what makes this bear so extraordinary?  His "half and half" glass eyes are sewn in his head in such a way that they can be tilted and rotated, giving him countless silly to serious facial expressions. Petsy bears usually have stationary, glass pupil eyes. This is one of the few Petsy bears of this size with cartoon style eye extant. 

And now for the wow OMG wow third can-you-bear it bear of this sale, let's take look at lot #82. This is a Steiff black Titanic bear. It has a starting bid of 4,500 euro and is cataloged by the auction house as:

"Titanic bear, one of the highlights of the this year's STEIFF GIENGEN auction 2023. A rare item from 1912, was produced in remembrance of the victims of the sinking of the Titanic on April 14th 1912. It were 82 pieces of this grief bear/ black bear produced. This Titanic bear has a seam at the middle of head, red shoe button eyes that are underlaid with felt, black embroidered nose and claws, small STEIFF button, block letters, long trailing f, long snaped off arms, hump, voice, intact, small faults at the feet, produced between 1912 and 1917, 50 cm, nice full black mohair, with provenience, enclosed invoice by the original purchase at Sotheby's 1990, and newspaper article by an American antique magazine, "Antique Review" from February 1991, one of the rarest bears that were ever auctioneered by the Ladenburger Spielzeugauktion."

This bear is so amazing that he leaves Steiffgal pretty much speechless in terms of analysis. So she will share a little story about him instead. When she first heard about this bear, she was certain it was a replica, based on how he was described to her. But his owners insisted he was the real deal from 1912. Fast forward, Steiffgal met this bear in person. His owners handed him to her, and he really was as close to tissue new as possible. So new that Steiffgal again thought he was a replica at first. But after a few moments, it became clear that he was well over 100 years and just in clean, breathtaking condition. His owners did not mention his center seam - which just puts this bear over the top in terms of appeal, desirability, and rarity. It's anyone's guess how the bidding will roll out with this bear... but watching it unfold should be more thrilling than any major Hollywood production!

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 auction bear highlights has left you star-struck!

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

The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of - Four Top Steiff Teds Sold At Auction This Week!

It was a very good week to be a vintage Steiff Teddy bear enthusiast! Two fine European auction houses known for presenting amazing button-in-ear temptations of all sorts held their signature early summer sales. And did they deliver! Let's take a look at four top lot results from these events and see what made these picks the stuff that dreams are made of.

On June 21st, 2022 Special Auction Services from the UK offered lot #40, "a very rare Steiff black mohair teddy bear circa 1912" as part of their Dolls & Teddy Bears early summer sale. It was cataloged in part as:

"A very rare Steiff black mohair teddy bear circa 1912, with black boot button eyes, red felt discs behind, pronounced clipped muzzle, black stitched nose, mouth and claws, swivel head, jointed elongated limbs, originally with cream felt pads, hump and inoperative growler -16½in. (42cm.) high (balding and thinning to top of head, bald spot at each ankle, piece missing from right heel, bald spot on side of left arm with a slight hole, small hole to top of muzzle, pads recovered, general wear and thinning, fading to front and a some strands missing from nose stitching) - this actual bear was sold at Christie's first Teddy Bear auction in December 1993 as lot 205 and comes with a copy of the catalogue."

The bear was estimated £5,000 - £8,000, generated 22 bids, and hammered at £18,000. Complete with provenance, personality, and presentation, this sweet old man was truly the whole package. Despite his condition issues, his absolute rarity and ties to one of the 20th century's most famous/infamous tragedies still clearly resonated with collectors worldwide. 

Later the same week, Ladenburger Spielzeugauktion GmbH from Germany presented their Special Steiff Auction as part of the annual Steiff Sommer Festival in Giengen on June 25th, 2022. The event generated a number of noteworthy Teddy bear sales - with three head spinning lots taking the gold, silver, and bronze medals here. 

1.  Of great interest - at least to two passionate bidders - was lot #6118, a handsome 1920s-era Steiff cub. It was cataloged in part as:

"Very nice, dark brown bear, around 1926, with button, long trailing F, with very beautiful preserved red flag, No. 5328,6, glass eyes, very beautiful preserved, dark-brown mohair, long snaped off arms, clearly hump, felt paws in very good condition, 42 cm, very nice, exceptional original condition."

The bear had an estimate of €850-€1,700, generated 83 bids, and hammered at €22,000. Every auction has its up and down surprises, and this sleeper lot caught everyone off guard in the best possible way. Yes, he was beautiful, a great color and size, and had fine IDs. A wonderful example all around. Perhaps he reminded the winning bidder of a long lost childhood friend, or maybe was the last bear needed to complete a series of cubs in a personal collection? Or perhaps he simply called to them in a heart to heart sort of way? Whatever the reason, it is certain that his new owner really, really wanted him! 

2.  Also catching the world's attention was lot #6107, a super-sized Petsy bear with an irresistible and classic presentation. It was cataloged in part as:

"One of the highlights of the auction, Petsy-bear, produced 1928-1930, 74 cm, long-haired mohair plush, brown tipped, jointed, big flexible ears, with button, long stretched F, big blue glass eyes, salmon-pink embroidering at snout, seam at the middle of head, nice, full mohair, single places of the mohair are caused by the sitting position flatted, felt paws were partially professional refurbished, 74 cm, with this size is only this bear known to us, extremely rare, very nice."

The bear had an estimate of €6,500-€13,000, generated 78 bids, and hammered at €42,000. Petsy bears continue to capture the imagination and pocketbooks of enthusiasts universally. Their rarity and distinctive childlike looks qualify them as crown jewels in practically every Steiff collection. This beautiful boy - in a remarkable size, lovely condition, and with ID - was outstanding in so many ways. As far as Steiffgal can tell, it is very likely that this exact bear now holds the world's record for the highest price paid for a Steiff Petsy bear sold at public auction!

3. And finally, it's hard to believe that any button-in-ear beauty could top the number two bear at this sale, but the stars really aligned here. The star of this auction was lot #6104, a remarkable and all but perfect white mohair rod bear with ID. It was cataloged in part as:

"Baer(le) PB, produced 1904-1905, an absolute highlight of the auction, a rarity, white mohair, sealing wax nose, below it you can recognize a bright embroidering at snout , shoe button eyes, with elephant button, 5 claws at paws and feet, head, arms and legs with rod jointed, movable connected, except of small places nice full white mohair, standing height: 40 cm, seat height: 29 cm, long snaped off arms, hump, pointed nose, mohair at the snout was shaved, exceptional."

The bear had an estimate of €2,500-€5,000, generated 63 bids, and hammered at €43,000! It was clear that this remarkable example would be a superstar in this sale - but these results are clearly off the charts! Before the sale, Steiffgal personally thought that he may trade hands as high as €25,000... but sometimes its ok to be wrong! And, like his cousin Petsy mentioned above, it is possible that this exact bear now holds the world's record for the highest price paid for a Steiff rod jointed bear sold at public auction! This example really was museum quality in condition, color, presentation, and originality. It was like he was made yesterday - but he was nearly 120 years old. How can that be? And can we all share his secret to the fountain of youth? Congrats to the buyer - this guy's a keeper for sure. 

Steiffgal hopes this discussion of these auction superstars has hammered your interest in these once in a lifetime cubs. 

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

A Vintage Steiff Find of Possibly Titanic Proportions

Hey, what's black and white and read all over? Hopefully this post on this remarkable Steiff rabbit! Steiffgal found this bouncing beauty in Orlando, Florida in the salesroom of the 2017 United Federation of Doll Clubs annual convention. Here's what makes him so outstanding from the design and historical perspectives.

This honey-bunny is called Steiff's Dutch rabbit. He stands 28 cm tall (not including his ears) and is made from black and white mohair. He has early Steiff rabbit proportions, including a chunky torso and limbs. His pattern is relatively basic and more playful than realistic. He is fully jointed, meaning his head, arms, legs, and ears can be rotated 360 degrees. His face comes to life with pink and red glass pupil eyes and a very simple pink hand embroidered nose and mouth. This pattern was produced in white, brown and white, and black and white overall from 1907 through 1916. The black and white version was produced overall from 1912 to 1916, with the 28 cm version appearing only in 1912.

There are three key details about this rabbit that make him the ultimate Dutch treat.

The first is his eyes. They are hand blown, red and pink glass pupil style eyes. You can see tiny air bubbles in the glass if you look at them closely under a loop. Steiff used these eyes on a number of rabbits from the c. 1907 through 1943 time frame. Glass eyes started appearing on a wide scale on Steiff items around 1908, so these really are an early and elegant example of this detailing. It is also interesting to note that the example of this black and white rabbit pictured in the Steiff Sortiment book has black eyes backed in red felt. But it is not unusual for Steiff to produce the same item with slightly different features, and that is probably the case here. But more on this in a bit.

The second is his jointing. This bunny really gets around - pun intended. He is fully jointed, which is not terribly unusual. However, the fact that each of his ears can be rotated in a full circle is quite rare. This is different than having the ears poseable because they are lined in metal wires. As early as 1904, Steiff started to experiment with a number of designs that really took advantage of emerging joint movement technologies. In some cases, these animals were six or even seven ways jointed. Franz Steiff was very interested in creating and patenting a system that would help to replicate the natural movement of an animal's ear. After several years of trial and error, he finally designed such a specialized joint and received a US patent for it on September 8, 1908. Over time, Steiff used this technology on items including cats, squirrels, and this rabbit pattern.

Finally, it is key to mention this rabbit's material and coloring. He is made in part from black mohair. Steiff made only a handful of items from or with black mohair at the early turn of last century; these included a crow, a goat, a few dogs, and black mohair patches on their early guinea pig and rabbit patterns. The company also introduced a black mohair Teddy bear in the early 1900's but it was not commercially successful. Early black mohair items really are few and far between, and seldom if ever seen on the secondary market. 

The black and white version of this rabbit debuted in 1912. This is the same year that the Titanic disaster struck, and Steiff responded by producing black mohair "Mourning Bears" with red felt backed eyes. An example of Steiff's Mourning Bear is pictured above on the left; the photo is from James D. Julia. These black bears from 1912 are considered the "holy grail" for many Steiff collectors. Although the Holland rabbit under discussion here has "albino" style glass eyes, the one pictured in the Sortiment has the same red-backed eye detailing as the company's Mourning Bears of the identical period. Given the timing of all of this, it is possible that the company's black and white mohair Holland rabbits from 1912 were made from the same lots of black mohair as the Mourning Bears, and that perhaps the red felt backed eyes that appear on some examples are a nod to this tragedy as well. It certainly is a mystery of Titanic proportions!

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on the company's black and white Holland rabbit has been a hop, skip, and a jump for you.

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

Steiff Dreams Can Come True - The Story of Black Jack From 1912

Have you ever watched a TV show where a regular person has literally "hit the jackpot" with an amazing boot sale, flea market, or auction find?  Well, this doesn't occur in reality very often!  However, it did happen in the most Steiff-like way to a terrific and lucky lady recently, who just happened to place the right bid at the right time on the right auction lot.  Here is an interview with her about this spectacular find; this conversation was first published in the Spring, 2014 Steiff Club magazine. 
 

Steiffgal:  Josie, thank you so much for speaking with us today!  Could you please tell us a bit about yourself?

Josie: My name is Josie Rockett, and I live with my family in Rye, in the South East of England. I am a full time Mummy to my three young children and most of my time is spent looking after them, our two dogs, and running our home. 

Steiffgal:  Are you a Steiff collector?

Josie:  I am a collector of vintage and antique Teddy bears. Our hug is fairly small and mostly consists of British bears; we actually only have a couple of Steiff bears in our collection. 

Steiffgal:  You had a very exciting find at auction recently.  Can you give us some background on that?

Josie:  I wasn't at the auction when I won the lot; it was an incredibly lucky twist of fate. I spotted a lot at a general auction being held at an auction house, there was no photograph, only a description. I liked the sound of it, took my chances, and placed a bid remotely. I was very happy to win the lot and my Father, who lives close to the auction house, went to collect it for me.

Steiffgal:   Your auction win turned out to be much more than you expected.  Tell us about opening up the old trunk and what you were thinking as you were going through its contents.

Josie:  Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to find. A week after the auction my Father came to visit us. On arrival he handed me an old red suitcase. As I opened the case, the first thing I saw were some dolls, some doll clothes, and some lovely Teddies. Then saw something wrapped in a blanket at the bottom of the case. I picked it up and started to unravel the blanket. The first thing I saw was a black mohair paw.  I then very slowly lifted the blanket off completely to find a beautiful black antique Teddy! My heart was pounding, I cannot tell you the excitement and joy that then erupted in our house! Had I just found an antique black Steiff bear?

Steiffgal: That is a fantasy situation that every Steiff collector dreams of! How did you know you might have a special treasure?

Josie: My first feeling was that he may be a Steiff bear from the moment I saw him. His shape and line and beautiful expression led me to feel that he could be a Steiff.  After an excited sleepless night, I got up the next morning, took some photographs, and sent them to off to Steiffgal. She confirmed that she too thought he was an early black Steiff bear. Based on where I was located, and what I had found, she suggested I contact Carsten Esser at TeddyDorado auction house about the bear.

Steiffgal:  You did take the bear Germany to meet Mr. Esser. Tell us about this trip.

Josie:  The trip to Germany was amazing! My Father came with me and we had such an adventure. Meeting with Carsten was wonderful; I was quite nervous but very excited. It was a little nail biting watching him examine the bear, but he did it with a smile and it wasn't long before we were all very excited! The next step was for the bear to go to Giengen for authentication, as he didn't have any Steiff IDs on him. It felt good to leaving the bear with Carsten.  Up until that point I felt like I had been his guardian. There was a little sadness but an overwhelming feeling of relief and happiness that he was in such safe hands.

Steiffgal:   You named the bear "Black Jack."  Can you tell us how that name came about?

Josie:  The name Black Jack was really given to him because he is a black Teddy bear. It is also quite lovely that my late Grandfather was called Jack. Both my brother and I were given names that started with a "J" as a tribute to him, so it is very special for him to have the name Jack.

Steiffgal:  How did you decide whether to keep the bear or sell him at auction?

Josie:  This was a very difficult decision. We did consider keeping Jack but after giving it a lot of thought we decided that he would be most at home in a fine Steiff collection or museum where he could be properly enjoyed. Our house is full of children and pets and in the short time I had him, he was wrapped up and hidden away for safety. If he were to stay with us, he would remain this way. I don't believe he wants to be hidden away anymore.  And I thought that the very best place for selling him would be through TeddyDorado at the 2014 Steiff Sommer Festival Auction, given that this event attracts the attention of almost every Steiff collector on the planet!

Steiffgal:  Jack went through a rigorous process by Mrs. Manuela Fustig, head of the Steiff Archive in Germany, in order to be authenticated as Steiff.  This certificate is pictured here for the readers to see. What went through your head when you learned that he received this certification?

Josie:  I can't tell you how amazing it was to hear that news, it was so great to be able to say "Black Jack is a Steiff bear!" From the day I found him up until that moment, it all felt like a dream. I think the news just made the whole situation more real for me.

Steiffgal:  Will you be going to the Steiff 2014 Summer auction to watch his sale? 

Josie:  Yes! It will be so lovely to say good-bye to Jack and wish him well for the next part of his journey. I think there is something magical about him coming back to his place of birth to find his new home. What an adventure he has been on! I have never been to Giengen and I am so looking forward to going. And, if I could tell his new owner one thing, it would be pretty simple.  Just love him!

Steiffgal:  Josie, thank you so much for sharing this amazing story with us! 

Steiffgal also had the pleasure of speaking with Carsten Esser, auctioneer at TeddyDorado, who will be selling Black Jack - who just happens to be lot 12-1912 in the company's June auction!  She asked him a few questions, to get a feeling of how important this bear is in terms of collector's interest and to the Teddy bear industry overall.  Here's what he had to say!

Steiffgal: Carsten, what were your thoughts about the bear when you first heard of him?

Carsten:   The first time I heard about that bear I thought "What a great find" - which I do not think very often as we frequently handle very old and near mint Steiff treasures here at TeddyDorado.  Then almost immediately after that I thought "Hopefully he is still in very good shape!" I requested photos, and when I received them, I thought, "Oh dear, he passed that level of examination in a brilliant way!" I wanted to learn more about the bear and do some research on him, so I offered the owner the opportunity to send us the bear as a consignment or at least to get a certificate of origin on him from the Steiff Company.  We decided to meet in person about the bear at hotel near the Cologne-Bonn Airport, which is close to our headquarters. 

Steiffgal:  What was it like to see the bear in the fur for the first time? 

Carsten:  When I first saw the Teddy bear he was wrapped in white silky paper - like fine clothes sometimes are. Then I took the white paper off and my first impression just was "Yes!" and I could not hide a bright smile on my face but I still was saying nothing I think. Then I carefully looked all over the bear, and studied his pattern, face, pads, and seams. He was in very good condition for being over a century old! I tried all his joints, and took a close look at his antique golden taffeta ribbon. I probably studied the bear very intensely for three minutes - and looked at nothing else in the room during this magical period. When I was done with the initial examination, I told the consignors that based on my experience and knowledge, they indeed had an original Steiff Teddy bear made sometimes between 1908 and about 1914 or 1915.   I also told the consignors that this bear never had red felt under his eyes, like the famous Steiff Titanic bears, and was probably even rarer than a Titanic bear!

Steiffgal:  So what happened next?  How did you prove the bear was indeed made by Steiff?

Carsten:  The consignors agreed to leave this bear with me, and I then brought it to the archival experts at Steiff in Giengen.  The bear spent the holiday season 2013/14 inside Steiff archives. A few months later, after much research, testing, and evaluation, we finally received the official documentation from Steiff indicating that this bear was authentic and manufactured in 1912.

 

Steiffgal:  So what was it like to receive this great news?

Carsten:  It was exciting and a great relief, but I always knew in my heart that Black Jack was made by Steiff. To me this Teddy bear is very special and absolutely in a class of its own like the other famous Steiff bears we have auctioned off at TeddyDorado, including Othello and Wistful Happy. It is also incredibly exciting that the Steiff company is creating a replica of Black Jack for their spring 2015 line.  This fabulous new collector's piece will debut at the 2014 Steiff Sommer Festival!  The speed of this replication and launch is unprecedented, and simply confirms Jack's universal appeal!

Steiffgal:  And now the last but hardest question.  What is Black Jack worth?

Carsten:  The opening bid is 8,000 euro, but even as the auctioneer,  I really do not have any idea what he will sell for in the end.  Time will tell, and we will all see what happens.  As with other high profile TeddyDorado auctions, there will be many photographers and media in the room when Black Jack goes under the hammer.  Everyone is very happy and excited that this magic moment is coming so soon!

Steiffgal:  Thank you for telling us more about Black Jack, and best of luck at the auction!

Steiffgal hopes that someday you have a Steiff find of a lifetime as well!

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