11/22/2006

Steiff bears
By Dolores E. Pike

After its short, traumatic lifetime, what can be left of a teddy bear that has been a baby's best friend from birth through toddlerhood and maybe a bit beyond?  In all likelihood this plush toy has been dragged around by an ear or a leg, constantly subjected to overzealous affection at the hands of a very small human being who tends to be coated with sticky foods, juices and substances best left to the imagination.

Maybe babies born one hundred years ago were gentler with the bears left in their care.  Whatever the case may be, it is interesting to note that recently a Steiff teddy bear sold at Christie's Auction House in London for $10, 692.  It is a circa 1905 rare, 25 inches high, cone-nosed, golden mohair bear with black boot-button eyes.

The name Steiff is to the toy world what Tiffany is to the jewelry world: name recognition that stands for the best that money can buy.

Margarete Steiff had been confined to a wheelchair as a result of childhood polio.  She was adept at working with her hands, becoming an expert seamstress in Germany with children's clothes being her specialty.  She never married but loved children and enjoyed their visits.  One day she stitched a pincushion in the form of an elephant.  Stuffed toys in the 19th century were a rarity and the elephant was such a hit that parents began to place orders for the plush elephants.

Ms. Steiff branched out, making many different stuffed animals, and soon she was getting so many orders she had to train other people to help.  By 1880 she had a mail-order business, which eventually became a factory.

The teddy bears were inspired by a 1903 Washington Post cartoon showing President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt with a bear cub.  The same year a New York City toy buyer, Hermann Berg, attended the Leipzig Fair in Germany and saw Ms. Steiff's bears.  He ordered 3,000 for the George Borgfeldt and Co. department store.

In no time the Steiff factory was overwhelmed with orders and expanded three times in the next five years, causing production to go from 12,000 bears to 975,000 annually.

The bears are still being made today in Giengen, Germany and early models like "Eddy" are still being produced after having first appeared on the market around 1903.  He has a blank, nickel-plated button in his left ear which proclaims his authenticity.

Collectors seek out the earliest examples of Steiff bears especially those bearing the ear button.  Until 1900 Ms. Steiff used an elephant with an "s"-shaped trunk as a business logo. Imitations caused her to design a permanent and more recognizable trademark. The solution, a small black button in the left ear, was revised in 1904 to incorporate an embossed elephant. Because of a ruling of the German patent office, it is not the button itself that is registered but the words "button in ear" or, in German, "knopf im ohr."

With their pointed snouts, long arms and feet and humped backs, early Steiff bears look much more like real bears than most teddies of today. 

Steiff bears remain the most valuable of all teddies because of their unique historical appeal and exceptionally high quality. They are still handmade with up to 30 small sections of fur-like fabric being sewn together to produce each completed animal.  The bear's nose can take 15 minutes to sew by hand.

The price or value of a collectible Steiff bear is determined by a complex combination of factors including number made, year of introduction, introductory price and year retired. Condition is, of course, important but an elusive factor when one considers the habits of the original owners.

Teddy bears have been collected in the United States since the 1930s, but in the last 10 years interest in old teddy bears has escalated along with their auction prices.

Even if thousands of dollars is too much for an old teddy bear the price of the new Steiff is stiff too, with prices ranging from $89 to $1,200.