Not Often Seen Tiny Steiff Chamois Gemse Antelope-Goat All ID

This rare and exotic baby is the smaller of the two sizes in which this chamois (“Gemse” in German) was made. I did not know, before I looked up the chamois on the Internet, that he is a cross between a goat and an antelope; really neat, huh? You don’t see him very often, since he was made only from 1961 to 1970—even fewer years than his big brother. The last time I helped a Gemse relocate was 2018.

Gemse has all ID, and he is in very good condition. His glass eyes and early style raised script button with skinny letters combined with his article number, 6312,00 (light but legible), allow us to know that Gemse was born sometime between 1961 and 1963.

The “12” in Gemse’s article number denotes his height in centimeters. He is even tinier than that, measuring 11 centimeters to the top of his head or about 4 3/8 inches. (Since Gemse is a baby, you don’t have to worry about whether to count his horns in his height, since they have not grown in yet. :-)) The first digit, “6,” in Gemse’s number tells you that he is a young animal. I know Steiff is always so good at representing that young look, but since I have never seen an adult Gemse, I take it on trust. 🙂

I said that Gemse is in very good condition, and I am sure there are some that would not be so conservative. Before I tell you my reasons, let me first tell you that I am rating Gemse absolutely, not “for his age,” which, as I told you, may be more than 60! If you must bring age into the discussion, you can say that Gemse is in very good condition DESPITE his age.

OK, based on a couple of other Gemse (I am not sure of the plural in German ;-)) I have helped relocate over the years, I believe his main brown color may be faded. On the other hand, it could just be a difference in dye lot. Telling you this is further complicated by the fact that I just could not render his actual color as accurately as I would have liked in my pictures. I think the left side of my fifth composite image comes closest to the way he looks in person.

The final complication in giving you a good feel for Gemse’s color is that I don’t know what he looks like on YOUR monitor!” My pictures definitely give Gemse a reddish-brown look, while in person his brown has a bluish cast. In any case, I think you can see that Gemse has very nice airbrushing all over, not just on his back, and not just on his mohair! His felt ears have both brown and rose-colored accents on their insides, and, although you can’t see it very well, there is more brown on the backs of his ears.

Gemse’s mohair coverage is basically complete; he has small touches of wear throughout, but his wear is mostly along his seams. Gemse has one really small moth kiss on the left side of his face, which I am pointing out with arrows in my fourth image.

Finally, as I already noted, Gemse’s article number is faded but legible. His chest tag is in excellent condition, with just the tiniest bit of wear in the top edge of the red periphery.

Well, in my typical way, I have given Sweet little Gemse a serious going over, but you should be able to see that he is in really nice condition. I can’t think of anything else you’d want to know, but please write if you have a question. Gemse is exotic and rare—and cute!—and does not appear very often. This is your opportunity to have one in your Steiff forest and field collection or to give him to the Steiff lover in your life.

WHATEVER YOU DECIDE TO DO ABOUT GEMSE 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.