Large SWEET Steiff 5xJointed Original Teddy Bear All ID

The Original Teddy Fairy has done it again! This sweet guy is the first Original Teddy (OT) of this size the OT Fairy has entrusted to me to help find a new home. He joins several relatives in my shop, so it is a nice family reunion. Teddy is a pretty big boy; he’s fourth from the top of the range of 13 sizes in which the caramel OT was produced.

Teddy’s catalogued size is indicated by the numbering on his flag, whose printing is dark and easily legible, as you can see. The “43” in his article number, 5343,02, indicates a size of 43 centimeters to the top of his head. Teddy is somewhat puny going by the catalogue; he measures 38 cm tall, or just under 15 inches.

Measuring his height suggests, and rightly so, that Teddy can stand for that measurement to be taken. That is true (he is standing unaided in all of my images), but he would MUCH prefer to sit. Teddy’s stance is not especially stable because of the anatomy he received in Giengen. His legs are ever so slightly different lengths, and this causes his feet to hit the ground at an awkward angle relative to each other. This is further exacerbated by the rounded shape of his feet due to his stuffing.

You might not want display Teddy standing anyway because of his size. His seated size will vary according to the posture you pose him in, but 12 or 13 inches should allow you lots of choices.

Teddy’s glass eyes and early-style raised script button with skinny letters make me believe it is likely that he was a member of the earlier of the two series with article number 5343,02, meaning that he was made sometime between 1959 and 1964.

Everything about Teddy is wonderful—except for the all-over thinning of his mohair, with some areas of wear, like around his muzzle and the tips of his feet, more pronounced than others. His mohair thinning, unlike his anatomical issue, seems to be something he acquired after he became someone’s (probably favorite) companion. If you picture a former young owner dragging Teddy after him wherever he went, you would expect to see more wear on Teddy’s arm(s) or his leg(s) which might have been the part(s) of Teddy that young owner grabbed. Perhaps the other areas of Teddy’s body were not grabbed but were subject to lots of snuggling and kissing, consistent with the “favorite companion” scenario.

Teddy’s mohair is, in some ways, really nice. His rich caramel color is uniform with no evidence of fading, and the coverage he does have is lustrous.

In any case, by today’s childhood safety standards, Teddy would not (and SHOULD not) be a young child’s plaything.

Teddy is, otherwise, so nice, I am not sure whether the standard categories I might use to describe his condition are applicable. Since my pictures are big and clear, perhaps the best thing is for you to decide whether he is right for your hug or for the hug of the lucky person who would receive Teddy as your gift.

As I implied by mentioning safety above, I assume Teddy will be joining the hug of an adult collector and will be given a place of honor in that person’s vitrine, where his mohair issue would not be that important or noticeable. The thing that makes Teddy collection worthy is his fantastic sweet expression, and that would not be at all diminished when he looks back at you with those wonderful glass eyes. I believe it is not only that Teddy’s eyes are glass, but their very placement in his face makes his expression particularly sweet.

This is a good time to mention Teddy’s other display characteristic, which is almost always at the bottom of my list of condition issues, and that is the fact that no longer “roars.” When Teddy is looking back at you from his vitrine, you would not know whether he made a sound or not.

Because Teddy is now silent, I guess the WAY he roared doesn’t matter one way or the other, and I am just noting this as a detail about his construction. If you go by Pfeiffer’s list of the various OT sizes, Teddy would have had a tilt growler. In fact, Teddy has a non-working squeaker in his belly. I know that because I hit him hard enough to elicit a slight noise, whereas the usual way I would know that a growler was not working would be to hear it clunking around in Teddy’s chest as I tipped him over; there is no clunking sound when I do that. As I say, what kind of “voice” mechanism Teddy had does not matter now; I just thought it would be interesting to note the difference between what I found and what Pfeiffer says.

I do want to tell you some other nice things about Teddy; his sweet expression is not his sole positive attribute. Teddy retains his original ribbon, which is still tacked to his chest. There is some slight fraying at the (non-loop) ends of his bow, but the ribbon is otherwise very nice. The ribbon is neither faded nor soiled, and it retains its original and uniform yellow-gold color.

Teddy’s felt paw and foot pads are neither faded, nor worn, retaining what seems to be pretty close to their original “ripe cantaloupe” color. Despite the wear around Teddy’s muzzle and the edges of his paws and feet, the brown floss stitching in both areas is complete. You can see tiny bits of mohair sticking through the vertical strands of floss on his nose, but that’s a common occurrence.

My last detail to report is Teddy’s chest tag. From a display distance, it looks nearly perfect. The tag does have some shallow horizontal creases. Although these creases probably did not threaten the integrity of the tag, I decided to reinforce the back of the tag with a piece of cardboard. This gives the tag a crisp feel and improves the way it looks. If you stick your nose in the tag, you will see the (now-protected) creases, but, as I say, from a display distance, you don’t see anything. The tag’s (double) connection string has only VERY slightly pulled up from the hole; it is nowhere near the red periphery of the tag.

I can’t think of anything else to tell you, and while I don’t know precisely how Teddy looks on your monitor, I think my pictures give you a lot of information. Of course, please write if you have any questions. I believe Teddy would make a wonderful addition to someone’s hug, whether that is the person reading this or the lucky person who will receive Teddy as a gift.

And while you are thinking “BIG ORIGINAL TEDDY,” please check out this guy’s equally sweet same-size gold cousin.

WHATEVER YOU DECIDE TO DO ABOUT TEDDY OR ANY OF MY OTHER STEIFF ITEMS, PLEASE BE SURE TO SEE THE ARTICLE I HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT STEIFF ID FRAUD—INCLUDING COUNTERFEIT CHEST TAGS—(AND OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR COLLECTORS). YOU WILL FIND THE LINK ON THE BOTTOM RIGHT OF MY SHOP HOME PAGE UNDER “FAVORITE LINKS.” IF YOU HAVE NOT LOOKED AT IT RECENTLY, I UPDATED AND EXPANDED IT IN MARCH, 2023.