Middle Brother Rare 1959-1961 Only Steiff Seated Bengal Tiger Open Mouth With FANGS ID

What a pleasure it is to offer Bengal Tiger (henceforth “BT’) to you! He joins his baby brother in my shop. This gorgeous (and not at all ferocious-looking) guy is the middle size of the three sitting tigers that Steiff made in this style, and he is very rare, having been made sometime in the short span of years from 1959 to 1961. Even though he retains only his chest tag, I can tell you what article number was printed on his flag; it was 3322,00, the only number for this guy.

The “22” in BT’s article number indicates his catalogue size in centimeters to the top of his head, which, as you can see, is slightly, and sweetly, cocked to his left side. Measured to the top of that slightly higher side of his head, BT is a little taller, measuring about 24 centimeters, or 9 3/8 inches. Of course, you will want to leave enough room for his ears, so you should probably plan on a display space with 11 inches of vertical clearance.

BT is in excellent condition, and I DON’T MEAN “for his age!” I rate all my critters on the same absolute scale, whether they were made more than 60 years ago, as this guy was, or 10 years ago. We have all seen fantastically preserved antique Steiff animals as well as those only a decade or so old who are ready for the trash.

BT has a minor detraction, but I don’t count it against him because it is factory caused. It is actually different from what I often refer to as a “birth defect.” Rather, I believe it is a design defect; see below.

NOT a defect, but rather because of my lighting, BT’s back—or at least the orange part of it—appears to be faded in the picture I took from above. My lighting, in combination with the “flow” of BT’s mohair on his left side, makes his back look lighter. What you are seeing on the left side of my fifth composite image is actually the sheen of his mohair, as the light picks it up.

While I am on the topic of the way my pictures look, I want to tell you that several were taken BEFORE I corrected the flattening of BT’s right ear in storage. I have no idea why I did not think of this beforehand, but all I had to do was to apply a little moisture to his ear and gently nudge it back into its original shape and position. I did not want to take ALL his pictures over, but I did want to make sure you saw how handsome he is.

BT’s one real “issue” is his now-silent squeaker. To tell you the truth, I can’t even find his squeaker when I press in on his chest; there is no “give” in his stuffing. This slight detraction will not be evident when BT is on display. I have many animals in my vitrines with squeakers, some of whom “talk,” and some don’t. I can’t remember, when looking at them, WHICH ones have working squeakers and which are mute. Because his silence has no impact on his appeal, I saw no reason to rate him any differently from the way I have.

OK, now the design flaw. Since BT is so rare, you may not have seen him before, and you would, therefore, have nothing to compare him to. The juncture of BT’s tail with his back was not placed such that his tail could extend freely behind him without stress. This “tail vs. haunches” conflict is evident in other seated animals with extended tails—Leo and Lea come to mind. Tails on seated animals (to more or less a degree) are in conflict with their haunches, causing a break in the tail’s stuffing. BT’s tail separation is probably in the middle of the range I have seen, since his tail does not flop down to vertical when you lift him up in the air.

I considered opening BT’s tail at the base to give it a fresh infusion of excelsior, but I decided that was silly, since he looks fine just the way he is, and, even with re-stuffing, his tail would have the same strain on it due to his posture and would eventually look as it does now. I am willing to open up animals to repair them when my repair would make a tremendous difference in their appearance, such that the invasiveness of the procedure would warrant the risk of doing more damage with the attempted repair. This is certainly not the case with BT. Therefore, I decided against doing anything.

Well, that’s it for BT’s detractions; everything else about him is wonderful. His mohair is full, and his coloring is vibrant. His white areas could not have been much different when he left the factory.

BT still has a healthy amount of rose-colored airbrushing on the felt of his open mouth, in which his ferocious 😉 plastic fangs are securely embedded. His black-airbrushed nostrils are still dark on his lustrous coral floss nose. And speaking of his nose, BT has all twelve of his original whiskers, a bit disorderly, but otherwise fine.

BT even has a slight remainder of the rose airbrushing that once decorated the insides of his ears. You can see it on his left ear. The black airbrushing inside both his ears is still strong. That is one of the reasons I wanted to adjust his right ear.

I do want to say something about BT’s chest tag. It has some creases, which are now prevented from worsening by a cardboard reinforcement I added to the back of the tag. If you look closely, you will see the creases, but they are not evident from a display distance. The tag looks a little distorted in my second composite image. I had to take the picture from a slanted angle because BT’s chin was in the way when I tried to take the picture straight on.

Actually, I added two reinforcements. Besides the one on the back of the middle of the tag, I added another, between the hole and the edge of the tag, which I am pointing to with an arrow. The short string had already pulled away from the hole, and I wanted to prevent it from pulling further away, completely through the tag, and thus severing the tag from BT’s chest.

I know how many collectors want everything original and would be “horrified” by my snipping off the tag to repair it and then reattaching it, so I left the tag in place. If BT were joining my collection, I would have done just that. 🙂 It was quite a feat to place the little crescent of cardboard UNDER the string, but I did it, and I believe this repair will keep the tag in place. I advise against handling the tag, which I had to do to take the picture, but it is now best to leave it alone.

I can’t think of anything else to tell you, but please write if you have a question. BT’s short production and great condition make him something an advanced collector should covet. If you are one of the lucky ones who own this beast already, consider him as a gift for the Steiff tiger lover in your life. Please also consider his baby brother; the two of them would love to stay together.

WHATEVER YOU DECIDE TO DO ABOUT BT 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 TH 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.