Picturing The Possible Design Origins Of Steiff's Beloved Jocko Chimpanzee

Steiffgal was working a project for one of her auction house clients and came across this charming image. Well, actually it came to her... probably because Steiff is usually in her head at any given time!

Image from Potter & Potter Auctions

What we have here is a 28 x 37-¼" printed broadside from around 1913. It was published in Hamburg, Germany by Adolph Friedländer, a man who ran a lithography company that produced over 9,000 posters between 1872 and 1935. Most of these were for performers and traveling acts, including magicians and circus and vaudeville performers. The words on the poster read Every Evening / Jeden Abend / Tous Les Soirs, and it is illustrated with a performing chimpanzee in four vignettes: modeling a tuxedo and top hat with a cane and cigarette; tossing a barrel over his head; riding a bicycle down a flight of stairs; and walking on stilts. The three languages on the poster suggest that this primate performance was international, or at least appeared in the UK, Germany, and France. This item is lot #256 at Potter & Potter Auctions' February 1, 2025 Wunderkammer sale, and is estimated at $2,000-3,000.   

Image from Zwiggelaarauctions.nl

So what is the possible connection to Steiff here? It is interesting to note that starting around 1910 or so, trained, performing chimpanzees were the darlings of the entertainment world. They appeared in circuses, in sideshow and venue acts, and in publicity photos and postcards - usually dressed in scaled human clothing. Steiff has always been aware of current events, media trends, and popular culture as inspirations for new product design. This started around 1904 or so, when the company produced a licensed version of Peter Rabbit - who at the time was making headlines in the children's literature world. Other history/cultural/celebrity productions of basically the same era included a series of dolls based on the Happy Hooligans comic strip; Caesar, the King's dog; and Tige (Buster Brown's dog), among many others. 

Primates have appeared in several forms in the Steiff line since the company's catalog debut in 1894. However, in 1909, Steiff introduced its most realistic, lifelike, and appealing brown mohair chimpanzee. Coincidence or not?

Image from Steiff's 1913 catalog

This fully jointed primate pattern - which would "officially" be named Jocko in 1929 - had authentic body and limb proportions and lifelike felt hands, feet, and facial features. Medium sized Jockos onward sported a white mohair chin and featured felt eye pockets. This ocular detailing meant that their brown and black glass pupil eyes were surrounded by raised felt eyelids. Brown mohair Jocko was produced in 15 sizes, ranging from 10 to 90 cm, from 1909 through 1943 overall.  

Image from Zwiggelaarauctions.nl

Bringing this discussion full circle, Steiffgal found an almost identical version of this poster, except that it had the words "The great consul Patsy" written in large letters across the bottom. She could not discover additional details on Patsy, but infers that the chimp pictured may have been named Patsy. Patsy was a popular boy's name in the early 1900s, and derives from a Latin word meaning “noble,” “nobleman,” or “patrician.” It is intriguing to think that someone from Steiff may have seen this poster, or performance, or one like it, and decided that it was time to elevate the company's chimp design to match the popular aesthetic of the time. And collectors more than a century onward are thanking them for this really wise choice!

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on Jocko's possible design origins has been a feast for your eyes!

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

This Long Brown Tipped Mohair Steiff Chimp Is One Head Turner Indeed!

When it comes to Steiff, it's always fun to monkey around. Primates have been an important part of the Steiff line since the late 1800's and many collectors really go ape over their expressive faces and playful presentations. Some of them even come with secrets - like this one. Check out this chimp-champ and see what makes him so interesting from the historical and product development perspective.

This sweet jungle-jem is unquestionably a mover and a shaker. His name is Chimpanzee, and he is 22 cm tall, sitting, and fully jointed. His long, narrow body, shapely arms, and bent legs are made from extra long brown tipped mohair. His face and hands and feet are made from tan felt. His charming face comes to life with black and brown glass pupil eyes set close together in eye pockets, a dimensional muzzle, a closed mouth, and a white mohair chin. And he has a delightful surprise - he has a tail moves head mechanism, which allows his head to rotate 360 degrees! Like many tail moves head items from this period, the mohair covering on this Chimp's metal tush-twister has been lost to time. He retains his large trailing f button and a trace of his red ear tag as his IDs. This great pattern was produced in nine sizes ranging from 13 to 66 cm from 1931-1934. Steiff also produced a closed mouth, long brown tipped mohair "Chimpanzee" without the tail moves head feature in five sizes ranging from 25 to 100 cm from 1928-1934 overall. 

Do you suspect any monkeyshines between Chimpanzee's design and that of his better known cousin, Jocko? Steiff's Chimpanzees did in part resemble the company's Jockos, but did have a few distinctively different features and treatments. For a comparison, please check out the photo on the left which features this 22 cm tail moves head Chimpanzee and his new best friend, a 23 cm wool plush Jocko; both were made in the early 1930's.

Steiff was really on the move in the 1920's and early 1930's, at least with its line of top-tier toy categories. Richard Steiff, although living in the United States at the time, was very involved with the company's product design and development pipeline. He constantly encouraged his family in Germany to create new and exciting novelties, to capture the hearts, minds, and pocketbooks of the growing global marketplace. He did this by writing passionate and persuasive handwritten letters, in beautiful penmanship, on his personal letterhead. These letters often stressed the importance of quality, innovation, presentation, and advertising as keys to business growth and success. The Steiff design team came up with the idea of "tail moves head" animals as one of many responses to Richard's directives. The company applied for, and received patents for this technology in the early 1930's.

Overall, about 25 different tail turns head models were produced through the late 1930's and very early 1940's. These were advertised as, "The ingenious head-movement makes Steiff animals appear alive." For the most part, these were based on the best selling standard line patterns of the time and included cats, dogs, rabbits, penguins, goats, and lambs, and even Mickey Mouse, among others. However, there were exceptions to this rule, like a most unusual tabby tail moves head bulldog. Even more interesting to note is the fact that there was not a Teddy bear - perhaps the company's most popular product - on the pre-war production roster of tail moves head items. Steiff would go on to make a fully jointed, tail moves head bear in 18 and 25 cm in 1955 only. Today, this rare bear is one of the most sought after postwar bear examples among collectors.

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on this tail moves head Chimpanzee has been more fun than a barrel full of monkeys!

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

Monkeying Around With This Early 1970's Steiff Riding Chimp

With Memorial Day  - the unofficial first day of summer - coming up next week, it's time to put the top down and go for a spin!  And Steiffgal can't think of a better vehicle to do that with than this utterly marvelous riding chimpanzee.  Let's take a joyride together and learn more about this great primate on wheels!

Let's not monkey around and get right to the point why this chimp on the go is so great.  Here we have Steiff's Reit Schimpanse or Riding Chimpanzee.  He is 50 cm, standing on all fours, and unjointed.  He is solidly stuffed with excelsior and has a grey painted metal grip handle. His body, head, and limbs are made from chocolate brown dralon fabric.   His hands, feet, ears, and face are made from a soft peach colored velour like material.  His face is detailed with friendly brown and black pupil eyes in eye pockets, an open, smiling mouth, a white dralon chin, a brown painted nose, and delightful, realistic airbrushed highlights.  

And what about his snazzy ride? Riding Chimp is mounted upon a black metal carriage with front wheel steering.  His red metal wheels have white rubber tires that say "Steiff 100" on them.  He retains his original red and white pull rope, which is wrapped neatly around his front axle.  This mobile monkey was produced in this size only from 1969 through 1972.  Despite his relative "newness," this design is rather rare and seldom seen on the secondary market.  (And that's understandable - who could part with such a charming treasure?)

This adorable riding animal certainly has great wheel-appeal.  And although not called out by name, the driver has a striking resemblance to Steiff's beloved and popular "Jocko" chimpanzee.  Jocko was produced in 9 sizes ranging from 10 to 80 cm from 1949 through 1990 overall. A whole family of Steiff's Jockos are pictured here on the left. However, there are a few fundamental differences between this item and Steiff's standard line post war Jocko pattern.  First, riding Jocko is made from dralon and soft velour, while standard line Jockos are made from mohair and felt.  Second, riding Jocko is unjointed.  Standard line Jockos are fully (and quite playfully!) jointed.  And finally, riding Jocko is permanently standing on all fours. Standard line Jockos are designed for sitting.  

Riding Chimp was produced during a time of change and challenges at Steiff.  During the late 1960's and early 1970's, many toy companies were starting to produce a great number of lesser priced (and of course, lesser quality) products.  These competitors were taking market share, and in some cases demand, from Steiff.  As a result, the company started trying to create efficiencies in manufacturing.  This was done in several ways, including simplifying patterns, decreasing or eliminating jointings, and using less expensive materials, among others.  

Riding animals have always been legacy patterns for Steiff.  However, given their size, complexity, and material and manufacturing requirements, they are by nature expensive to produce.  As such, starting in the 1960's, the company began transitioning away from woolen mohair, the material traditionally associated with these higher end toys, to dralon - a less expensive and highly durable synthetic fabric.  Dralon riding animals from this period, in addition to this chimpanzee model, included a bear (shown here on the left, with his great red wooden FAO Schwarz tag), Cocker Spaniel, Schnauzer, donkey, pony, goat, fox, and elephant.  Almost all were based on slightly modified versions of well known Steiff patterns of the era.

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on Steiff's Riding Chimpanzee has been more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

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