A seamstress from Giengen, a felt elephant and a golden button: the story of the most famous plush maker in the world.
Margarete Steiff was born in 1847 in Giengen, Germany. Polio deprived her early of the use of her legs, but never of her energy: a seamstress by trade, in 1880 she founded a workshop around a small felt elephant, designed as a pincushion, which children immediately claimed as a toy. Everything Steiff was already there: quality of craft, and children's eyes as the final judge.
1902: the bear that conquered the world
In 1902, her nephew Richard Steiff designed a jointed mohair bear, the famous 55 PB, fed by his sketches of bears at the zoo. Presented at the Leipzig fair in 1903, it left with an order of three thousand pieces for America, where every little bear would soon be called a teddy bear. The modern soft toy was born in that Swabian workshop.
1904: the button in the ear
Success attracted imitations. In 1904, Franz Steiff, another nephew, came up with a signature that could not be forged: a small metal button fixed in the left ear of every animal. The Knopf im Ohr became one of the first registered trademarks in the toy world, and it has never left Steiff ears since.
Mohair, a noble material
Woven from angora goat wool, mohair plush is dense, lustrous and surprisingly resistant: it is what allows a Steiff bear to cross half a century and keep its bearing. Modern soft ranges now stand alongside it, but mohair remains the signature of the collector pieces.
Collecting Steiff today
Two worlds live side by side at Steiff: the plush animals made for cuddles, and the collector editions, produced in limited numbers, numbered, sometimes faithful replicas of historical models. Treff the dog, a reissue of a 1928 model, is a fine example: period looks, button in the ear and the soul of a faithful dog.
Treff Dog - Steiff 1928
Our mohair Zotty bear, limited to 1,500 pieces worldwide, tells the same story of passing things on: it is the bear that illustrates our article on toys truly worth their price.
Nearly one hundred and fifty years later, Margarete Steiff's motto has not aged a day: "For children, only the best is good enough".
About the author: This article was written by the team of L'Oiseau de Paradis, a Parisian toy shop founded in 1932. Four generations in the service of childhood and authentic play.
