Rare Large Steiff Mohair Foal Baby Horse 2 IDs 1953-1957 ONLY

This baby horse was made in two sizes, and this is the larger and much rarer one. Even his little velveteen brother is not seen very often; I may have helped 10 to 15 of those little guys relocate over the 25 years I have been doing this. I was almost certain that this guy was my first mohair foal, but I found another after a thorough search of my records. He had no ID and had various condition problems, which explains why he may have receded in my memory.

Although Foal no longer retains his flag, the article number printed on it is certain; He was made in only one series, whose number was 6328,0. That series was produced only from 1953 to 1957. The “28” in Foal’s number indicates his catalogued height in centimeters. Because his mane is integral with his head, I am using that measurement to compare him to the catalogue, and Foal is really close. To the top of his mane he is almost exactly 28 cm, or 11 inches tall. His ears extend even a tiny bit higher than his mane, which is the measurement you really need so you can give Foal sufficient vertical display space. I think leaving at least an inch of headroom beyond his mane would be a good idea, so that Foal does not look cramped.

Another digit in Foal’s article number that might interest you is the first digit, “6.” Steiff used that number to identify young animals, and they surely got it right with this guy!

Because Foal has such a sweet expression, I am guessing you would want to display him facing front. Therefore, knowing his front-to back measurement would be helpful for your planning. If you want to let his tail extend naturally and not be mooshed against the back of your vitrine, a display depth of 10 inches should be fine.

OK, now that the preliminaries are covered, I can tell you about Foal’s condition, which I hope you can see is fantastic, without my saying anything. That rave is tempered only slightly by a few condition issues. The first one, the moth kiss on the left side of his head, will not even be apparent if you display him facing front, as I have assumed. Even if you wanted to display Foal facing left, I don’t think the area of missing mohair would be that noticeable from a display distance. The kiss is in an approximately rectangular shape, about 3/8 of an inch by 1/4 of an inch.

Also out of view, no matter how you display Foal (unless you have him lying on his back ;-)) is the worn felt on the bottoms of his hooves. I am showing his rear hooves to you as a separate inset because, unlike the bottoms of his front hooves, which are totally visible in my fifth composite image, his rear hooves are not. It may be difficult to see, but because the felt is thinner than it once was, you can detect the excelsior stuffing below. I don’t mean you can see the ACTUAL excelsior; the felt is not torn or separated. I mean you can see that there is something dark beneath the felt covering the bottoms of his hooves. The tops of Foal’s hooves are felt too, and they are in excellent condition.

Speaking of Foal’s hooves, I come to a condition issue which is not damage or wear, but is present as a design feature on animals with hooves like Foal’s; dromedaries and llamas come to mind. Steiff has all these animals standing on tiptoes, which makes their stance less stable than if their four feet were flat on the ground. Foal stays standing just fine, but a little nudge to his side will make him wobble. Since he will be on display, that instability is irrelevant; I just wanted to mention it.

Finally, I come to what is almost always at the end of my discussion of condition issues, and, it would not matter HOW you displayed FOAL; his squeaker would be mute 😉 But unlike the visual things I have already told you would make little difference when Foal is on display, his silence is not a visual thing and would certainly not be known to anyone admiring his sweet expression as he looks out from your vitrine. Foal is so hard stuffed, that I can’t even feel his squeaker depress when I push in on his belly.

There are lots of POSITIVE things I could now tell you about Foal, but I trust my pictures do an adequate job of showing them to you. I will just briefly note that his coloring is fantastic, and I have not even included a closeup picture inset of his chest tag, since it is in flawless condition.

I can’t think of anything else to tell you, but please write if you have a question. This wonderful baby should be in every serious Steiff collection, but except for his lucky new owner, the rest of you will have to wait for another. 😉

WHATEVER YOU DECIDE TO DO ABOUT FOAL 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.