Steiff Teddy Bears

Writing an article on Steiff Teddy Bears is probably one of the hardest articles to write on Teddy Bears, the reason?  There is just so much to cover.  The history, the family, the bears themselves, how they are made, etc. it goes on and on.  You could write books on this subject rather than articles.

Truth is, whether you love and collect Teddy Bears or not, there are not many people on the planet, especially in the Western World, who have not heard of the magic words "Steiff Teddy Bears."   I think it is the famous "Button-in-the-Ear" which most people know of, as, when you show them an Old Teddy Bear, one of the first things they say is, ‘'Does it have a Button in it's ear?''   Steiff is certainly an international company.

Steiff began in 1877 in Germany, it's founder being a very brave lady called Margarete Steiff, who was crippled with polio and confined to a wheelchair from a very early age.  She grew up to become a very experienced and dedicated seamstress,  despite the odds always being against her, employing lots of women from her local town who was desperately in need of employment due to the very hard times.  She started to make soft toys, using left-over felt pieces.  The company became so successful that she employed her nephews to help, one of these nephews being Richard Steiff.  Richard was put in charge of new designs and creating new ideas and products.  A very experienced artist, after studying art at college, Richard spent hours studying the animals at the local Stuttgart Zoo, where he would make lots of sketches of the animals, including the bears that lived there.

Richard saw that children needed a soft toy that they could take into their arms and cuddle, as, all the toys available at that time were hard, even the dolls of the time were made of very hard materials.  Some toys were made of wood and even metal, especially German toys.

Steiff made soft bears for children but these bears were on wheels and still could not be cuddled.  Steiff also made a set of skittles for children, using different animal characters and what Richard Steiff noticed was, children seemed to like the Bear Skittle most of all.  So, using the sketches he had done at the Zoo and using lots of imagination, Richard Steiff began to design a bear that children could hold in their arms, a comforter and friend.

The first bear was born in 1902 and was known as the 55 PB.  This bear had very primitive joints which were attached by string.  It has to be said that Richard's Aunt, Margarete, really did not like the first bear that Richard produced but luckily, this only made him more determined to create a successful bear that she did like.

Richard Steiff presented his first Bear to the Spring Fair that was being held in Leipzig in 1903 and the initial reaction to the Steiff Bear it has to be said, was not very good.  Feeling very disappointed with this reaction, Richard began to pack his bears away when literally, out of the blue came a buyer from the New York Importer, George Borgfeldt & Co. who was at the fair looking for something that was just a little bit different.  He saw Richard's bears and almost immediately placed a big order.  Luckily for Teddy Bear lovers everywhere that he came along or else, who knows, we probably would never have known of the Teddy Bear.

Richard carried on working on his bears, improving their jointing techniques and in 1904 the 35 PB Teddy Bear was born.  This Teddy Bear received great acclaim and by the end of that year, some 12,000 Teddy Bears had been sold.  In 1904, a smaller version of the Teddy Bear – the 28 PB – was also produced with newly patented rod-joints and then, in 1905, the very successful 35 PAB Teddy Bear was released onto the market.

By now, the Teddy Bear – as we know him – was becoming iconic in the toy market.  America especially loved him.

As I mentioned earlier, most people, when you mention the word Steiff think of a Teddy Bear with a button in his ear, well, this Button-in-the-Ear trademark was first patented by the Steiff Company in 1905, simply as an attempt to stop other manufacturers from copying their products, this was not very successful and many soft toy companies also put buttons in the ears of their bears, which Steiff had to stop and they did rather successfully.  The first Steiff label was actually made from cardboard, with an elephant (with an ‘S' shaped trunk) on it - I will cover the reason why an elephant was used in a later article. 

The imprints on the metal Steiff button has changed over the years and to this day, it is still changing and so helps with the ageing of your Steiff Teddy Bear.  Again, I will go into this more in a later and more specialised article.

In 1908, cloth labels started to be used which were attached to the Steiff metal buttons, these labels carrying further printed details of the company and/or the product they were attached to, again making  dating the Steiff Teddy Bear more easy.  Again, I will talk more about these labels in a later article.

Margarete Steiff died in 1909, but her famous motto ‘'Only the best is good enough for our children'' was certainly carried on by the Steiff Company who, today, still produce some of the finest Teddy Bears and Toys in the world and whose design and quality is second to none.

Steiff Teddy Bears are highly desired by Teddy Bear Lovers and Collectors the whole world over.  Prices for Old and Antique Steiff Teddy Bears are always at a premium and, certainly when you see how an Old Steiff Teddy Bear ages, it is not surprising why.

When Old and Rare Steiff Teddy Bears come to auction, they are always the Bears that hit the headlines in the media, making such big prices.  Take, for example, the famous Teddy Bears, Happy, Elliott and Teddy Girl, to name but a few who have hit the headlines, they are all Steiff Teddy Bears.

As Steiff Teddy Bears were originally made as a comforter for children, today they still make excellent companions for small children, especially as Steiff are so strict on the safety element.  Also, a Steiff Teddy Bear will simply last a lifetime, probably getting better and better with age.