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.

Be A Doll And Take A Look At This Most Unusual Steiff Little Girl!

Well, hello Dolly! If that's not an enthusiastic greeting, then Steiffgal doesn't know what it. Having just returned from a magical weekend at IDEX, a very large doll and Teddy bear collectible show held each January, Steiffgal certainly has dolls on the brain. So perhaps it's the perfect time to introduce readers to "Erika", a most unusual vintage Steiff doll that Steiffgal just welcomed to her hug a few weeks ago.

Steiffgal "felt" she always wanted one of these treasures as part of her collection, but never had the opportunity until now. Erika, named after Steiffgal's paternal grandmother, is an original "pressed felt" face doll, produced from 1937 through 1943, and then again in 1949 and 1950. She is 35 cm, standing, three ways (head and legs) jointed, excelsior stuffed, and made entirely from flesh colored felt. 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 glass eyes embedded in eye sockets. 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.

Like all of Steiff's pressed felt dolls of the time, Erika is dressed to the nines. Her underwear consists of 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. She wears a red cotton floral calico jumper that closes with snaps and is detailed with a ruffle around the waist area. Her footwear also is removable and consists of white cotton socks and red felt Mary-Jane style shoes. And the crown of her outfit must be her green molded felt Tyrolean style hat, which is trimmed with a light blue silk cord.

The history of these unusual dolls is pressing. Although Steiff’s center seamed dolls, introduced as early as 1903, were popular and sold well, the company had been experimenting with alternative ways of manufacturing felt heads since the 1920’s. The goal was to eliminate the center seam and substitute the face with one made from pressed felt. This proved quite challenging to do. The designers at Steiff chose to model their head mold for the pressed felt face on the sculpture of an idealized child created by Baroque sculptor Francois Duquesnois. It is interesting to note that the German doll manufacturer Kathe Kruse also based some of their doll designs on this sculpture. After years of trying, the Steiff designers finally mastered the art of creating felt pressed faces by reinforcing the molded material with a plastic backing. Soon after, they introduced a small line of these new dolls in 1936 at the Leipzig Spring Fair.

By the late 1930’s, these new seamless Steiff dolls became a significant product offering of the company. Both boys and girls were produced in 35 ad 43 cm. All models had felt bodies and jointed heads and legs. Their faces were detailed with delicate, hand painted facial features, glass or painted pupil eyes, and mohair wigs. Their removable clothing was beautifully tailored with a look of cheery childhood innocence. They were promoted as...

“Continuing in the tradition of our early, popular, Steiff dolls, we now present our new dolls, with their sleek, long lasting workmanship and appealing, engaging expressions.” 

Instead of Steiff buttons in their ears, each doll was given a special red rubber bracelet that had the button and yellow flag attached like a charm. Overall, about 27 different versions of the pressed felt dolls appeared in the line through 1950. 

Steiffgal hopes this introduction to Erika and Steiff's pressed felt dolls has been as fun as child's play for you!

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