Rare “Big” Sister Steiff Wool Miniature PomPom Horned Owl Bird All ID

This girl (guy?) has relatives of two kinds in my shop. Her mohair cousin Wittie is the same species, and she has a couple of distant relatives who are not owls, but they are wool miniature pompom birds. It has been many years since one of these owls last flew into my shop, so I am delighted to see her.

Owl is the larger of the two owls made in this design. If you measure to tips of her tiny “horns,” she is about 10 cm high, about 4 inches, to her right horn, and if you stop at the top of her head, she is about 3 3/4 inches, so in either case, she is a tiny bit taller than her 9-cm catalogued size.

Unfortunately, Owl’s button covers all but the last three digits of her article number, which is 7480/09. She was made from 1971 to 1984, or I should say that her SERIES was made during those years, but because Owl has a lentil button, she was probably not made after 1977.

Speaking (again ;-)) of her button, because Owl has no visible legs or ankles—the place you usually see the button and flag on the wool miniature birds—her flag is curled around the middle of his foot. Because her button was attached just on the outside of her foot, that attachment does not interfere with her stance, and she is quite stable. I guess that is the good part of her button placement; the bad part, as I said, it that it covers more than half of her number.

As to her condition, I would say it is excellent. I don’t think I have ever seen a wool miniature owl who did not look disheveled to some extent. Certainly, the two examples in Pfeiffer’s book, Steiff Sortiment, have “ruffled feathers,” and the larger one—the one who corresponds to this girl—is far more disheveled. Perhaps you can’t see it that well from my pictures, but the strands of wool leaving the last 3/4 of an inch or so of Owl’s back are longer. They represent her tail feathers.

I have to admit that I would have liked it better if Owl were not so cockeyed—although in that characteristic, too, she is better than most (again, if you can, see Pfeiffer). Several times, I tried to rotate each eye so that its iris was parallel to her felt beak. and I thought I had almost succeeded; notice the left half of my second image. That success was short lived; her eyes reverted each time to the position they were in when she arrived. I was VERY careful not to pull out one of her eyes when I tried, but after the third or fourth time I gave up. 😉

Owl’s eyes are still firmly attached, and their asymmetrical placement gives her a goofy but endearing expression (a rationalization? ;-)). Obviously, if you have a thing for symmetry, you might not agree, but I decided to accept her as she is (which, I am sure, is the way she left Giengen).

I can’t think of anything else to tell you, but please write if you have a question. I think there should be an owl in every Steiff wool miniature collection, and I don’t think you will find a nicer one. Likewise, if you are an owl fan, either Steiff owls or owls in general, you should consider adding this one to your parliament (did you know that “parliament” is the collective noun for owls, but if you are an owl fan, I guess you did. ;-))

WHATEVER YOU DECIDE TO DO ABOUT OWL 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.