Largest Brother Rare Steiff 5xJointed Tiger Cub ID 1952-1957 Only

This fabulous cat is the largest of the three fully jointed tiger cub brothers. The tiny guy is the rarest, having been made the fewest years, but “big” brother is the rarer of the two you see most often, although even that is not very often. All the jointed tigers are rare, and this guy was made only from 1952 to 1957, and in only one series, with article number 5314.

As the “14” in his article number indicates, Tiger is nominally 14 centimeters tall, but, as is so often the case, he is shorter. He measures about 12 centimeters high, about 4 3/4 inches, to the top of his head when he stands erect, or as nearly as erect as you can pose him.

Let me elaborate on Tiger’s stance. His joints are healthy and tight (maybe juuuuuuust a tiny bit less tight than they once were, but in no way problematic). The things that you might want to hold against him—but I think of them as a birth defects from the factory, since they are clearly not damage—are first, that his legs are not precisely all the same length, and, second, his hip joints are not placed symmetrically on the sides of his body. I am being nitpicky here; both of these asymmetry features are minor, and it is easy to adjust Tiger’s pose so that all his feet touch the ground simultaneously, AND with no lean. And, what follows from what I said at the beginning of this paragraph about his healthy joints, his stance is stable. He has no tendency whatsoever to collapse. I am pointing this out because loose joints are a common problem with old Steiff jointed animals—due to internal rotting or play—and I think it bears mentioning affirmatively that Tiger has no standing issues.

I don’t want to say that Tiger is in excellent condition, although I am sure that others might. He has a couple of less-than-perfect attributes, so I would say, conservatively, that he is in very good condition—and I mean this absolutely, NOT “for his age.” If you want to bring age into the discussion, Tiger is in very good condition DESPITE his age, which is well over 60, even at the youngest he could be.

Tiger’s first deviation from perfection is his VERRRRY slight fading—both in his background orange and in his black stripes. The orange, in particular, is actually very nice, and if Tiger’s near mint brother did not live in my vitrine, I would not have realized that Tiger was anything but the way he looked when he left Giengen. The difference between Tiger’s black stripes and his vitrine-living brother’s is slightly more noticeable than the difference in their background color. However, I would say for his stripes too, that without this ready comparison, his stripes would not have raised any concern.

The other non-perfect aspect of Tiger’s condition does not need a comparison between him and any other critter, since I would recognize moth nibbles by themselves (although it is amazing to me that many online sellers do not recognize them for what they are). I have pointed out a few areas where moths made their presence known. I have inset enlarged pictures of the nibbles into the images where Tiger is posed in a way that you could see them if my images were much bigger. I have made my insets bigger to better show them to you, and these enlargements are not to scale with each other. The most noticeable nibble is the one that is located mostly on the side of Tiger’s left front leg, but crosses beyond the stripes into the white mohair. The others are all totally WITHIN a white area, and because the background fabric is the same color as the mohair, you really have to look carefully to see anything. All the nibbles are very small, and, truth be told, I may have missed other, even tinier, ones. However, you get the general idea; Tiger’s mohair coverage is not perfect, but it is very good.

The last thing I want to mention is down to the level of REAL nitpicking! Tiger’s whiskers are long and straight, and symmetrically placed on either side of his nose, but if you look closely, you will see that he has six on the right side and five on the other. OH MY! I would love it if that were the worst “failing” that any of my animals had. 😉

I think you have all the information you need, but, of course, please write if you have a question. Tiger is wonderful, and if you are into the Steiff wild cats, he should be in your collection. While you are thinking about cats, both wild and domestic, please check out Tiger’s relatives in my shop. If you are thinking of a gift for the Steiff cat person in your life, you have many wonderful choices.

WHATEVER YOU DECIDE TO DO ABOUT TIGER 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 DECEMBER, 2022.