Keeping It Tru With This Mysterious Prewar Steiff Doll

Hat's off to another great Steiff find! Here we have a lovely prewar Steiff doll that recently joined Steiffgal's hug. Her condition and coloring is stunning, and you can't help but admire her perfectly coordinated outfit - and how well she wears it! But behind this little gal are a number of really big mysteries. Take a look at Trude and see what makes here so intriguing from the product design and historical perspectives.

What we have here is a precious pressed felt faced doll named Trude. She is 35 cm, standing, three ways (head and legs) jointed, and excelsior stuffed. Her face is made from flesh colored felt, while her limbs and trunk are made from flesh colored linen. Her arms are floppy and hang loosely by her sides. Her arms are bent slightly at the elbows, and she has very defined fingers. Her face is highly textured, with chubby cheeks, a realistic mouth, pert nose, and lifelike blue glass eyes embedded in eye sockets. Her facial painting is lovely and done with a gentle hand. Even her little ears are sculpted just like a child's. She is finished with a blond mohair wig, which is seamlessly integrated into her head structure. Trude's IDs include her red rubber bracelet, tan colored tag, and teeny tiny prewar button. You can see her IDs close up in the photo below. 

Trude's outfit is adorable and fits her to a "t". She wears a white cotton "one-sie", which is trimmed with lace around the leg openings and bodice. It has thin little straps which fit over her shoulders to help keep it in place. Her short sleeved white cotton blouse is removable and closes in the back. It is cropped and detailed with red pull strings at the neck and arms. She wears a cotton dress that closes with two metal snaps and is detailed with a ruffle around the waist area. The fabric features yellow, blue, black, white, and green wildflowers on a red background. Her footwear also is removable and consists of white cotton socks and red felt Mary-Jane style shoes. And she retains her original red and yellow wide brimmed hat, which is trimmed and ties with a red silk cord.

Trude is super interesting for number of subtle reasons. Steiff's "pressed felt" face doll line was produced from 1937 through 1943, and then again in 1949 and 1950. Steiffgal cannot locate a c. 1930s-1950s era doll of her construction with that name. The fact that her name was written by hand on her tag suggests that only a few of these dolls with this name were made. But more on that in just a moment! Also of note is her construction. Many to most of these wartime era dolls were made entirely from felt, but this example has a felt head and a linen body and limbs. This may suggest that she was manufactured when fine toy making materials were unavailable or expensive due to wartime rationing or shortages - perhaps in the very 1930s to early 1940s. As a result, matching linen in the place of felt was used instead in less "visible" areas of the doll's anatomy. 

Trude is dressed and resembles one of Steiff's standard line production pressed felt faced dolls named Gretel. Gretel was made in 35 and 43 cm from 1938-1942 overall and is also dressed in a similarly styled red dress with snaps, a white blouse, and red felt shoes with white socks. The most obvious difference between Trude and Gretel in terms of outfits is that Gretel wears a red hairband, and Trude has an oversized felt hat. You can see a picture of Gretel here on the left, the image is from Pfeiffer's Sortiment 1892-1943.

So here is where there are more questions than answers about Trude. Was she made to substitute for Gretel in terms of her materials and construction? Was she perhaps a sample of some sort? Why doesn't she appear in any Steiff materials, as far as Steiffgal can locate? And why does she have a large, glorious felt hat... given the rest of her is constructed to minimize the use of this premier toy making fabric? Well, only she knows for sure... and unfortunately, she's not talking!

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on Steiff's terrific Trude doll has been a playful addition to your day. 

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

Swept Away Over This Latest Midcentury Steiff Discovery!

Isn’t this guy simply "one-derful?" Look who just joined Steiffgal's hug. She had been looking for a fine example for decades, and apparently good things come to those who wait. Make it your lucky day and say hello to this super Steiff Sweep!

This adorable chimney sweep puppet named Blacky is 17 cm tall. His head is made from a soft rubbery material. He has a plastic finger tube inside his head. His hair is once copper colored mohair, and his body is jet back mohair. His oversized hands are made from felt and are lightly stuffed with excelsior. He wears a traditional black felt top hat and carries a black plastic ladder. His face comes to life with black and white painted eyes and some not-so-random coal smudges. His "outfit" is accessorized with a partial black leather belt and a neck tie. This puppet rarity was made in this size only in 1964.

The chimney sweep profession goes back as far as the 16th century in Europe. According to legend, chimney sweeps have been associated with ushering in health and happiness. As such, many brides in the past would have their chimney swept on their wedding day. Steiff probably added a chimney sweep to its line because of his centuries-long reputation as a good luck charm. 

Blacky debuted in the company's "New Models 1964" catalog. This four page, full color brochure featured a number of now rare Steiff novelties, including a few that also were made for one year only. Steiffgal refers to these sorts of treasures as Steiff's "One-derfuls." Blacky is pictured on the back page of the catalog, and you can see that part of that page here above. You can also click on the image to make it bigger. 

His neighbor in this catalog is none other than Steiff's equally as rare and interesting Sneba snowman puppet. Sneba is 17 cm, unjointed, and made from white dralon. His face comes to life with button black eyes, an orange felt carrot nose, a red stitched mouth, and a touch of pink blush on his cheeks. He has two black "coal" woolen pompoms on his chest. Like his buddy Blacky, he wears a black felt hat and was made in one size only in 1964. 

You might just recognize Blacky's mug - as the same mold was used for a number of other rubber headed puppets in the 1960s through 1980s. These include Happy the clown, Hansel and Gretel puppets, a princess, a modernized Shockheaded Peter, and even a grandmother, among others. It is interesting to see how this mold was used to represent male and female characters of all ages. And there is precedence for "recycling" facial molds on Steiff's dolls and puppets. If you look carefully, Steiff's beloved and legacy Dwarfs Lucki, Pucki, and Gucki all have the same face.... and share those good looks with the company's rubber faced Santa Claus dolls of the same era.

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on Blacky the Sweep has been a happy windfall for you.

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

This Marvelous Prewar Steiff Girl is Made of Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice!

A "rosa" by any other name... would ALMOST be as beautiful as this sweet Steiff doll! Steiffgal recently had the pleasure of handling a very vintage button-in-ear doll that came from a fine and well curated collection down south. Take a look at this lovely lady in red... and be tickled pink, for sure!

Here we have Steiff's charming Rosa girl. She is 28 cm tall, fully jointed, and made from felt. She has a short blonde inset wig, proportional blue and black glass pupil eyes, and a prominent vertical facial seam. Her perfectly to scale nose is dimensional and she has painted eyebrows. Rosa wears a red felt dirndl style dress with black trim, a white cotton blouse, white apron, a white underskirt and underwear, knit socks, red shoes, and a red felt hat that perfectly matches her dress. Steiffgal believes the tan lace on her dress is probably replaced. Rosa retains her tiny long trailing "f" Steiff button in-ear. This beautifully attired doll appeared in the line in 28, 35, 43, 50, 60, and 75 cm from 1908-1926 overall. So this example is the smallest standard sized produced.

Rosa has a few features that make her particularly interesting from the timeline and product development perspectives.

First is her facial stitching. In addition to her vertical center seam, she has small horizontal seams near her eyes. Steiff specifically added in this design feature to their line of proportional and endearing "children" line, starting around 1908. These extra seams gave the face a pleasing roundness and further emphasized its youthful symmetry.  

Second are her hands. Rosa has simple, rounded embroidered style hands, suggesting that she was made at the earliest point in her production timeline. Steiff's first dolls had hands that looked more like fists; "fingers" were indicated by embroidery stitches. You can see this in the photo here on the left. By 1910 or so, most Steiff dolls had "conventional" style hands, with prominent and individual fingers.

And finally is her blouse. Her white cotton shirt fits perfectly, and is correct to her period and design, but is slightly different than the one pictured in the standard Steiff reference books. Rosa's shirt has lace and lots of tucks and details; the one pictured in Pfeiffer's Sortiment is much plainer. Rosa's shirt may be a replacement, or not. This doll model appeared in the line for nearly two decades. Over the years, clothing styles on dolls tended to be updated a bit, and generally were simplified over time. This was usually for cost savings, labor savings, and/or supply chain management issues. Because Rosa was probably "born" around 1908-1909, it is possible that she is wearing a fancy, original blouse that was streamlined to a more simple version over time. Only she knows for sure!

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on Steiff's Rosa has brought a bouquet of happiness to your day.

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

A One In A Million Steiff Doll Treasure

The power of technology has made the world alot smaller. Imagine sitting in the comfort of your study or living room, cold drink in hand, dogs at your feet... and participating LIVE in real time in an action event happening on the other side of the world. That's just what Steiffgal did this past weekend - sans jetlag or a four figure airplane ticket! 

On June 29, 2019, Ladenburger Spielzeugauktion GmbH auction house held their annual Steiff summer sales event associated with the Steiff company's annual Steiff Sommer event in Giengen, Germany. 146 fine and interesting Steiff lots were on offer; all but one sold. Although there were a handful of "bargains," many items delivered extraordinary results - sometimes 5 or even 10 times over estimate!

One of the sale's unusual treasures really caught Steiffgal's eye, and heart. It was lot #33, an odd but extremely appealing late pre-war era doll. It was cataloged as...

"Prototype Steiff felt doll "Purzel/Wichtel", button with short F, yellow ear cloth tag label with handwritten item number "35", breast sign with handwritten names "Purzel", 35 cm, white-black cross-eyed glass eyes, fivefold jointed, originals felt clothes, in 1939 there were only a few this prototypes with different clothes and different neck marks, all with handwritten names "Purzel" and "Wichtel", the neck mark "Purzel" belongs to a a similar test doll from the same year, according to the archive prototype and the entry at the district court the doll has the name "Wichtel"; probably were the neck marks Purzel and Wichtel interchanged at the completion of the dolls, this doll is from Giengen by the descendants of a former Steiff-employee, the blue felt jacket is minimal faded, otherwise in very good original condition, Wichtel /Purzel is extremely rare, with expertise by the company Margarete Steiff GmbH, Giengen."

Estimated at €800 - €1,600, it hammered for €6,500 with 46 bids; with the 22% buyer's premium it traded hands at €7,930 or just over $9,000.

And just what makes this little felt Sprite (Wichtel translates to "Imp" from German to English) so hugely interesting? He is an otherwise unknown example of the company's mid 1930s - early 1950s pressed felt face doll production. These dolls were made without Steiff's traditional center seam construction. With these dolls, their detailed and textured faces held their molded form via a plastic interior support mask.

Many collectors are aware of Steiff's little boy and girl pressed felt face dolls from this time frame. These were made in 35 and 43 cm; all had felt bodies, jointed heads and legs, and dangling arms. Their faces were detailed with delicate, hand painted facial features, rosy cheeks, glass or painted pupil eyes, and mohair wigs. Their removable clothing, including lace-trimmed underwear, was beautifully tailored with a look of cheery childhood innocence. And, true to Steiff tradition, the girls all had fine shoes and hats. Steiff also introduced a few pressed felt faced dolls in regional or cultural costumes at the same time. You can see a small collection of these precious beauties above. 

Steiff also used this seamless, pressed felt form on a few lesser known items of the late 1930s and early 1940s.  The three that Steiffgal knows of are...

1.  A 35 cm clown doll, detailed with a white, caricatured face and expression, period clown outfit,  and circus style felt hat (in the line from 1936-40; also made as a puppet from 1936-43 and as a roly poly from 1937-43); 

2.  A 28 cm "Lucky Dog" good luck doll with a mushroom cap and long mohair beard (in the line from 1937-1941), and;

3.  A 30 cm brown mohair chimpanzee (1937-40). The chimp is pictured here on the left, the photo is from Pfeiffer's 1892-1943 Sortiment. 

It appears that Purzel/Wichtel has a few similar features to other Steiff pressed felt items of the era. These include his size (same as the standard line children and clown dolls), sewn on ears (like the chimps and the clowns), and black and white glass cartoon eyes (like the Lucky Dog good luck doll.) However, Purzel/Wichtel is five ways jointed, while the other items, except for the chimp, are not. This implies that he might have been designed as a higher end or more expensive model. 

It is not clear why Purzel/Wichtel, or other dolls like him in his series, were never produced on a commercial scale. It is safe to assume that he was quite costly and labor intensive to manufacture, given his full jointing, elaborate facial detailing, and top-tier materials. That, and given the German geopolitical and socioeconomic realities of the era, hint that that there would be little demand, and little profit, associated with a "luxury" item of this sort. Needless to say, Purzel/Wichtel is not on his way to join Steiffgal's hug, and that hurts her heart just a little. But as all optimistic collectors say, "the next great find is just around the corner."

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on this sample Purzel/Wichtel doll has been a one of a kind experience for you.

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

This Vintage Felt Soldier Doll Has Uniform Appeal

There's not really any uniform answers to Steiff identification mysteries, especially when it comes to turn of last century, military inspired felt dolls.  Take a look at this note from Margaret, who asks about one of her recent finds.  Over the course of several exchanges, she shares the following about a vintage soldier doll that in many ways resembles those made by Steiff.  She writes...

Hi Steiffgal,

I was very happy to come across your blog tonight. I am an antique bear collector who has many old bears and pull toys, velvet toys, felt toys and so on. I hope you won't mind if I pick your brain. With your experience, you can probably give me some good information, or at least good speculation, about an item I purchased today at an antique store.  

I have gone through my Steiff Sortiment and cannot find a match to this guy.  He seems closest to "Young Brigade" to me, p. 445, but he is not a perfect match.  He is obviously old, as old as my other Steiff dolls circa 1914.  He stands a hair more than 13" tall. He has a couple of tiny moth holes. He is jointed. He does not have a mohair wig, he has hair that is painted on.  Instead of shoe button eyes or blue glass eyes, his eyes are hand made glass humanized brown eyes, very tiny and pretty and realistic looking. He has a little mustache. He has two proper little felt ears and a little nose. He has a sweet expression.  The seam that goes up his face stops at the top of his nose and re-starts at his hairline.  And his hands are dark felt, obviously meant to look like he is wearing gloves.

The doll is wearing a uniform, maybe a field coat, made of brownish gray wool. It has little brass buttons on it with a tiny insignia that looks like a pineapple shape. His coat has a little light brown or orange-ish square sewn onto each end of his collar; the coat is fairly long and buttons hold it open at the bottom. It is finely and expertly sewn and kind of gathered in the back. The sleeves have cuffs. The front of the coat has pockets on the chest. The right shoulder has a bit of the same fabric pinned to the shoulder, as if something else might have been there at some time.

His pants are made of the same wool fabric as his coat and they tuck into the top of his black leather boots. They kind of balloon a little bit (they are not a tight fit). The black boots are leather, the uppers are two pieces, there are eyelets and laces, these boots are very intricately and accurately done. They are as good as human boots, just miniature.

Is he Steiff, but a variation of the dolls pictured in the Sortiment, so he won't match up perfectly? Is it possible someone else made him? Who is my guy?

Thank you for any ideas you can provide. 

From one Steiff aficionado to another,

Margaret" 

Let's follow marching orders and get right down to business in terms of this dolls.  Yes, in many ways, he does share some similar characteristics to Steiff's wide range of soldier and military themed dolls from the approximately 1910 through 1920 time frame. These include his materials, general proportions, detailed clothing, and body construction.  However, there are three key areas that clearly suggest that he was made by a manufacturer other than Steiff.  These are his:

• Clothing and footwear style and details
• Facial construction
• Unusual eyes shape

If it were just one of these things, then maybe it could be an exception.  But all three suggest the alternative. 

 

Steiff's Infantryman from 1914 though 1921

Let's keep things somewhat orderly by starting with the dolls attire.  Typically, Steiff's military men have very fitted, detailed uniforms that have a "crispness" to them.  The clothing in general does not feature "puffy" or "gathered" details.  Steiff's doll jackets and pants are angular and often have edging and other contrasting stitched details, and simple, plain buttons.  The soldier doll pictured to the left is a good example of this; for more information on him please click here.  The "pineapple" buttons on Margaret's doll are much, much more detailed than the buttons on Steiff's usual military dolls, and his clothing appears too "informal" to have been made by Steiff.  

Center Seam Face

Face it, Margaret's doll's facial construction is also interesting - but not typical to Steiff.  Steiff is known for both their center seamed faces (which can run either horizontally or vertically) and their seamless pressed felt faces.  The company worked for over two decades to perfect their pressed felt face techniques, and during that time produced several hybrid prototypes that never went to market.  The pressed felt faced dolls do indeed have almond shaped eyes, but they are painted

Pressed Felt Face

eyes, or glass eyes embedded into the facial mask - not sewn on the face as it appears in Margaret's case.  It is possible, although not terribly probable, that the face on Margaret's doll is one of those "half and half" experiments with only a partial facial seam.  Steiffgal sees these these occasionally at auction - but they are never noted as Steiff, just as early European felt faced dolls... and they never have a Steiff buttons in their ear, suggesting that they were not meant to leave the factory.  

 

Early Scotty, delightful photo from http://oldtoys.info/

Eye veh... and now his handsome eyes.  Collectors probably recognize the soldier doll's distinctively shaped peepers as similar to those seen on Steiff's early Scotties, Selyhams, and Skye Terriers starting in the 1930's.  Steiffgal thinks that Margaret's doll is older than that - probably no later than the early 1920's.  Steiffgal also has never seen soldier's distinctive, 3D almond shaped eyes on any Steiff doll either in person, in the Steiff archives, or in pictures.  Early Steiff eyes used on felt dolls were round black shoe buttons, while later ones were round glass pupil. According to Steiffgal's colleague Lauren Mikalov, a doll expert and columnist for Dolls Magazine, many companies - including Lenci, Chad Valley, and Norah Wellings - used more humanized glass shaped eyes on their early felt dolls.  So there is history and precedent for this design element... but just not with Steiff.     

So just who is this mysterious military man?  Without labels, it's almost impossible to tell... and like a good soldier, this one's keeping state secrets.  

Steiffgal hopes this discussion on early felt dolls has met with uniform appeal.

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