BIG And HEAVY Iconic 1950s 5xJointed Hermann Teddy Bear “70 Series”

Every once in a while, I venture into the little-known (to me) territory of bears and other stuffed animals produced by firms other than Steiff. One of the main German manufacturers whose wares I have offered is Hermann, a company that goes back to the early 20th century, and whose probably most-recognizable trademarks are the hanging-on-cord circular chest tags of various colors and materials on which the words “Hermann Teddy Original” were printed starting in the early 1950s and used until the early 1980s. Because this bear was made during that time (from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s), I know he wore such a tag.

The only identification I have found for this bear is that he is in the “70 series,” and I have seen old catalogue pictures showing that he was made in several sizes. I have seen only selected pictures from old catalogues, where his size was stated as small as 40 cm. and as large as 60 cm, with sizes in between. I don’t know what the smallest size he came in is, nor whether there was one larger than 60 cm.

The 70 series bear was made in two versions. One version is the one you see here, with longish brown-tipped mohair covering everything but his muzzle and inner ears, and the other version has silver tipped mohair. I don’t know whether only some sizes and/or dates had which color covering, but I am assuming they were equally available in all the 70 series bears. As you can see from the wear in his paws and feet, Teddy is stuffed with excelsior.

Because Teddy doesn’t stand well (see more on that below), it was hard to get a precise measurement of his height, which I measured the way I would the height of a Steiff bear—to the top of his head. I took my measurement when he was lying on the table horizontally, and I got 22 inches, which is about 56 centimeters. I know that Steiff animals and bears are often a different height from what their flags represent from the catalogue—and more often smaller than larger than their catalogued height, so there is a chance this bear is “officially” the 60-cm 70 series bear.

Even when this bear was new, I don’t think he would have been displayed standing. The soles of his feet have a very small surface area, and they are quite rounded. Teddy’s head is quite big compared proportionately with the size of his body, legs, and feet, and even if his joints were tight and stiff (in a good way) like new, he would almost certainly topple over if you tried to pose him standing on his own, without a bear stand—something I do not own. Thus, the relevant measurement for you to know for displaying him is his seated height. Of course, you can vary his posture somewhat, but sitting with good posture, Teddy measures about 15 inches to the top of his head from his sitting surface.

OK, now I have to make an admission. All of Teddy’s joints—his shoulders, hips, and head—are extremely loose. My added ribbon (made in Germany :-)) makes his head a bit more stable, and he can hold his arms up pretty well. But his hips are VERY loose. Because I wanted you to see his whole body, front and back, so you can see that his mohair covering is fairly nice, and because I don’t have a stand, I cheated. I pulled up a rubber band on each leg and tucked it in around the top of the leg out of sight into each hip joint. I was able to create just enough friction so that Teddy could awkwardly maintain a standing pose while leaning against something, and you can see that even that is not so great. I believe his ability to sit up with good posture is also due to my innovative joint enhancement. If you are not happy with my solution to his joint problem, I will gladly remove the rubber bands before Teddy goes to his new home. I still believe that he was never made to stand because of his small rounded feet, and I am actually quite pleased with my solution to his joint situation.

The only other thing I want to tell you is that Teddy has a VERY LOUD tilt growler. He protested often as I was trying to work him into the various poses I am showing you.

You can see my source of information in my last image. My German is not so good, so I got only limited help from the text, but the book, “Das grosse TEDDY-HERMANN-BUCH,” has some fantastic pictures, including the old catalogue pages I referred to. And, it is interesting to me that THIS bear is on the cover of the book. I interpret that as meaning he is somewhat iconic as a representation of the Hermann Teddy company, and that even without his chest tag, he would be easily recognizable as a Hermann teddy bear!

I can’t think of anything else to tell you, but if you still have a question, of course you may write. If you are looking at this item, there is a good chance that you are interested in Steiff bears and other animals too, so I invite you to look at my article on Steiff ID fraud. You can find a link to that article on the bottom right of my shop home page under “Favorite Links.”