History and Identification of a Steiff Teddy Bear

A private client brought their father’s teddy bear to Museum Textile Services for conservation. The client’s father was born in 1923. The bear had blond mohair fur on a cotton ground, Excelsior (wood wool) filling, and shoe-button wooden eyes. The bear was characteristically similar to early teddy bears, like Steiff and Michtum bears.

Front of Teddy Bear before conservation. Image by MTS. Courtesy Private Client.

Back of Teddy Bear before conservation. Image by MTS. Courtesy Private Client.

​History of Steiff Teddy Bears:
​Margarete Steiff was born on July 24, 1847 in Giengen an der Brenz, Germany. When she was 18 months old she contracted poliomyelitis aka polio which paralyzed her legs and caused pain in her right arm. Despite the pain in her arm, Margarete went to sewing school and became a seamstress. She worked as a tailor and eventually founded a felt clothing business selling clothes and household articles. After seeing a sewing pattern for a small stuffed elephant, she made elephant pin cushions. Soon afterward stuffed animals became popular as toys for children. The Steiff Manufacture was founded in 1880 and made a variety of stuffed animals including the elephant, dogs, cats, hares, horses, and monkeys. Stuffed bears did not appear until 1902 when Margarete’s nephew, Richard Steiff, designed the first bears with movable arms and legs. The bears became immensely popular in the USA in 1906 under the name Teddy Bear, which were named after the American president Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt. 

Detail of face of the Teddy Bear with Excelsior visible through hole in nose

Identifying the Teddy Bear at MTS:
To determine the manufacturer of the client’s bear we first closely examined the materials and construction of the bear. The blond mohair, cotton fabric with fine strands of wool pile, was consistent with the kind seen on the majority of Steiff bears. The earliest Steiff bears were stuffed with Excelsior and sometimes kapok.  Our bear was entirely stuffed with Excelsior. 

Steiff bears had an internal skeleton, consisting of cardboard disks and metal pins, that allowed the head, arms, and legs to be moved. We could feel the round disks connecting the head, arms, and legs to the body of the bear. The final feature that confirmed the client’s bear as a Steiff was the metal button-in-ear with the word “Steiff”. To distinguish their high-quality products from other competitors and cheap imitations, Steiff developed the brand sign “Steiff – Knopf im Ohr” (Button in Ear). ​

Teddy Bear positioned sitting up to show articulated limbs

​For more information about Steiff Teddy Bears and Margarete Steiff GmbH check out the Steiff Museum.  Stay tuned for a future blog about the conservation treatment of the teddy bear.

Kayla Silvia is a Conservator at MTS.  She has a BA and BS from (SUNY) at Oneonta, and a MPhil in Textile Conservation at the Centre of Textile Conservation from the University of Glasgow in Scotland. ​

Identification of Teddy Bear Courtesy of Morgan Carbone, Associate Conservator at MTS