RARE Biggest! Brother Steiff Eisbaer Polar Bear All ID

This guy is a first for me! I can’t tell you how excited I am to introduce you to the biggest and rarest Steiff standing polar bear (“Eisbaer” in German) brother of the three sizes that were made in this general design; his baby brother was so excited to see him, and with the middle guy, there is a fantastic family reunion! All three sizes of this design are rare, with the two smaller brothers not having been made after 1972. In fact, the baby in my shop was not made after 1961. HOWEVER, none of this gorgeous big boy’s whole production (in just three series) was later than 1961, AND he is from the earliest of those three series, made only in 1952 and 1953. In fact, I can date him precisely to 1953 because of the blue printing on his chest tag and the tag’s shape.

The only other largest Eisbaer I have seen in person lives in my vitrine, and he has only a button. I decided to keep him, rather than this guy, although it was tempting. Bears are not my main area of collecting, and I am quite content to keep the one I have—who does, in fact, have slightly more residual airbrushing than this guy. That absence, except for his mouth and a barely (heeheehee) visible brown spot on his behind, the main reason I am saying that Eisbaer is “only” in very good condition.

The other reason for my downgrade from “excellent” is also color-related, but that issue is color he HAS, rather than color he is missing. In my third image, I am showing you an enlarged inset of the right side of Eisbaer’s muzzle. There is an almost imperceptible darker area on approximately half his muzzle, extending horizontally between his eye and his black floss nose. I made a point of photographing it in a way that shows you the stain(?); I believe in most lighting and display conditions you would not even see it.

That is pretty much it for detractions, but I do want to mention a few additional things at the level of “Rosalie nitpicking.” Eisbaer’s original blue leather collar has some wear along its edges, but nothing that threatens the integrity of the collar, especially, since you would have no reason to unbuckle and rebuckle it. I did that because it was impossible to take a picture of his chest tag when the collar was attached. I was not able to move the (large) bell out of the way. Now that I am at the nitpicking level, I will tell you that Eisbaer’s chest tag has some fading around its red periphery, and the grommet that protects the hole against movement up and down the rectangular ring has become partially separated from the tag. The separation is minor, and the grommet still does its job. The slight darker area you see (or maybe you don’t :-)) is tarnish from the bell, which, of course, is covered BY the bell, so you don’t see it.

Again, on the topic of Eisbaer’s IDs, and again on the topic of fading, his flag is worn (partly around the button) and faded. I don’t know how much you can make out of his article number, although I believe all but the last digit, the “1,” are legible even in my picture; and I think that in person, you will just barely see the “1” as well. In case you can’t see the number, I will tell you that it is 1325,01, in which the “25” denotes Eisbaer’s height to the top of his head in centimeters. He’s a bit smaller, measuring 9 inches high, or about 23 cm.

Whatever Eisbaer lacks in vertical stature, he most certainly does not in other ways; he is 14 inches in girth and 4 inches wide across his rear end.

Finally, and almost always at the bottom of my condition issue hierarchy, Eisbaer no longer roars. You can feel his springy squeaker depress, which makes a sound that is a combination of the clicking of the squeaker mechanism and the crunching of Eisbaer’s excelsior stuffing.

I want to end on a few positive notes. Eisbaer’s mohair coverage is complete, except for a tiny bit of wear on his chin. I believe that his mohair is as white as it ever was, and, in any case, the color of his mohair is identical to the color of his vitrine-living brother’s.

Finally, Eisbaer’s gorgeous blue eyes are glass, and when you see them looking back at you from your vitrine, his sweet gaze will be so appealing, that you will forget to think about whether he makes a sound.

I can’t think of anything else you’d want to know, but please write if you have a question. All serious Steiff collections should have at least one mohair polar bear, and you can now have all three!

WHATEVER YOU DECIDE TO DO ABOUT EISBAER 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.