Next To Smallest Sister Earliest Model Steiff Wittie Owl Bird 2 IDs MAGIC EYES Great For Halloween!

This is the second smallest Wittie owl. She joins her baby sister, already in my shop. This girl’s article number is 4314. Like the baby, whose number is 4310, this Wittie is from the first series of her size (14 centimeters). She “hatched” sometime between 1954 and 1958.

Also like her sister, “big” Wittie arrived without her “horns,” those small sprays of black “feathers” emanating from the top of her head, creatively represented by Steiff with tufts of horsehair. Also like her sister, Wittie now has replacement horns, made from the same type of horsehair tufts she originally had when she left the factory—and creatively replaced by yours truly.

Believe me when I tell you that was no easy task. 😉 The time and labor were worth it, however, since Wittie looks a lot closer to what she must have looked like when she left Giengen.

As I said, Wittie’s height is designated as 14 cm, and she comes close to the catalogue, measuring 13.5 cm to the top of her head, about 5 1/4 inches. Now that she has her nice new horns, you want to make sure she has enough overhead clearance. I believe another inch would be sufficient, but I am guessing your planned area to display her will be much higher than that.

Wittie has a few condition issues, so I am conservatively saying that she is in good-plus condition, and I don’t mean “for her age!” I evaluate all my Steiff animals on the same absolute scale, no matter when they were made. If you want to bring age into it, you can say Wittie is in good plus condition DESPITE her age, which at the youngest she could possibly be would be 60.

No condition issue is major, but because Wittie has more than one, I want to stay conservative in my assessment. Her mohair coverage is full, except for a really small area near the top of her head. It is barely noticeable except when light is shining directly on it, and even though I am showing it to you in my eighth composite image, you really can’t see very much, since the fabric underlying the mohair is the same color. Because of the irregular shape, I believe it is a moth nibble. Obviously, the moth was not very hungry, since Wittie has no other mohair loss. As I said, the bare area is irregular; an approximation would be that it is about a square centimeter, with a good part of that square actually filled in with mohair.

Wittie’s next issue is the VERY slight stains on her right felt-covered foot. The “worst” one is parallel to the outer the seam of her outermost toe. The stain is about 3 mm. long and 1 mm. wide. I am showing it to you on an inset enlargement of her foot in my fifth composite image. I am showing you a closeup of the bottom of that same foot in my ninth composite image. The stains there are so light, that I did not want to point them all out individually. I think you can see that there is really nothing seriously going on with that foot (and of course, even the stain on the outside of her toe is inconsequential).

Wittie’s final condition issue can be summarized as “fading.” This occurs both in her mohair and on her felt. You can see that she still has small touches of green on her ankles and tail and the tips of her wings, and even a barely detectible “whisper” of green on the white mohair disks that encircle her eyes. There was also once green on the top of her head, but that is totally gone. Although her chest was never as dark as her back and the tops of her wings, it has some fading too. I don’t think the main color of her chest is that different from what it once was, but the darker brown spots are now less intense than they once were.

OK, enough nitpicking! The airbrushed scallops on both sides of Wittie’s wings and her tail are still very nice. As you probably surmised, they represent feathers.

And finally, you can see why I called her eyes “magic” in my title. Their phosphorescence could not have been stronger the day Wittie left the factory. Of course, the magic is ephemeral, with the initial glow, right after turning of the light, very strong, but the glow lingers noticeably for about a minute; that’s pretty impressive for this old girl!

I can’t think of anything else to tell you, but please write if you have a question, and please consider keeping the sisters together.

As I remarked about the baby, Wittie is a wonderful all-year-long addition to your Steiff or bird collection, but like her avian shop companion, Hucky raven, Wittie would make a wonderful addition to your Halloween decorations!

WHATEVER YOU DECIDE TO DO ABOUT WITTIE 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.