Posted 13 years ago
audreyk
(2 items)
I bought these two items at an estate sale. They reminded me of early steiff. However, there are no tags or buttons. They are both pretty worn, but I think they might be mohair. If anyone knows more about them, please let me know.
Hi scandinavian_pieces! Thanks for looking and for your help. My parents bought me steiff throughout my childhood and I have a lot of the puppets. I've never seen a dog like this made by steiff but it reminded me so much of the puppets I had growing up I couldn't pass up the chance to buy it. As far as the teddy bear is concerned, I'm not as sure. The ears are small and the seem is in the back. Whatever help you can offer me in attempting to identify these two items would be awesome.
I wish I could tell you more about them but I have no idea. The estate sale was held at a house built in the 1800's and from what I understand, the person who had recently died had inherited the house from a couple who had passed away years ago. I found the bear and the puppet on a table full of old toys (tin and stuffed). No one there could tell me anything about them.
The dog's ears are stitched to the sides of it's head so they do not hang freely like the picture of the puppet in your book. I wish I had some of my puppets to compare the quality to this one but they are in storage at my parents house. The dog's eyes also appear to be metal? The more I look it over the more I wonder if it's really steiff. I have felt up and down the ears and there is no steiff button or even a hole where a button should be. I did post a new picture of the dog with a close up shot of the face.
I posted the teddy bear's face as well as his paw where the material has worn away so you can see his "insides" It looks like wood? The bear is not jointed from what I can tell, but it does feel like there is something hard used to connect the arms and legs to the body. Obviously not buttons that would snap together, but that is how it feels.
btw, on the dog puppet, there is a cardboard tube inserted in the head for the finger. But I think the eyes are wrong. I don't think it's a steiff. Won't the eyes be glass? Or at least made from something shinny and be 2 toned to look like real eyes?