RARE Steiff LEA Lioness (NAMED) Wild Cat Hand Puppet Chest Tag ID

If you have looked at my mohair lion cub puppet, you would have seen a picture of this lovely lady, who without ID, could be “just” a cub or the far more elusive Lea lioness puppet. Although I make reference to her verbally and pictorially in the cub puppet’s listing, the Lea shown there was sold long before that mohair cub puppet came into my shop. Now, however, you can own an actual Lea puppet, identified by her chest tag!

I am not casting aspersions on sweet Lea; I am delighted to have her. But, as I explain in the cub puppet’s description, the separate existence of a Lea puppet with only a different chest tag is basically because Steiff got lazy; they wanted their Leo puppet (introduced in 1958) to have a mate. But they did not want to design a lionESS puppet when they had a suitable mane-less puppet who could be a good stand-in for a lady lion. In some early catalogues, Leo, with his named chest tag, is presented with a lion who wears the generic “Original Steiff” chest tag, and who is listed only as “Loewin,” meaning “lioness.” That catalogue picture showed Leo’s companion/mate as one and the same puppet who could have been billed as “Jungloewe.” or “lion cub.”

I asked my expert-on-all-things-Steiff friend in Germany about the Lea NAMED puppets, and he told me he had seen only two in the last several decades! Now that number will be four (because he saw the previous Lea puppet I sold, who was the third). 😉 And what is particularly nice, in light of the fact that chest tags on puppets are a frequent casualty because they stand in the way of the puppeteer’s fingers, the very thing that makes her special is still there! That is, of course, why my friend in Germany saw only two—the two he KNEW to be Lea because of their chest tags!

Lea’s chest tag is not perfect, but it is in excellent condition. The imperfection is the VERRRRRRRY light ghost of some writing that had been on the tag. In fact, unless, like me, you scrupulously examine every feature of a Steiff animal who comes your way, you would very likely miss it without my telling you so. I do that because I like to be as accurate and complete as I can when I tell you about the animals I sell, but I believe that casual observers would not see anything. Another slight imperfection in the tag is the tiny white “dot” between the bear’s eyes. I believe that is the result of slight abrasion to the paper on the top layer of the tag. The tag shows absolutely no evidence that it has ever been in the way of a puppeteer’s fingers; it is absolutely crisp and uncreased.

Lea, herself, has a few minor imperfections, one which I may have contributed to, but they are not enough to make me want to assess her condition as at least very good (and I mean absolutely, not “for her age” whatever that is supposed to mean).

I am showing you the imperfection that I believe I contributed as a large inset in my second image. Actually, in one way, I improved Lea’s condition, and that improvement is what caused the additional (minor) problem.

If you look closely at the picture of the closeup and enlarged section of Lea’s chest (you can see it in situ if you follow the arrow), you can see the presence of one large and dark hair. When Lea arrived, she had a number of those mysterious hairs clustered in the same area, taking up a few millimeters. I don’t know how those hairs came to be there, but they were definitely part of Lea’s otherwise light-colored chest (not the white it was originally, but till a nice light gold). Because of their individual sizes and location, I immediately dismissed the idea of some errant air brush spray. In any case, because the dark hairs were compacted into that small area, I found them annoying to look at.

I carefully plucked several dark hairs from Lea’s chest, and I stopped after each one to assess my progress. The problem was, and which is why I stopped my painstaking removal of the hairs, each hair was actually PART of Lea’s original mohair covering, despite the fact that they were not the color of the rest of her chest. In performing my removal, I left a teeny tiny bare area where each removed hair once was. I did not really notice this originally, even though I stopped often to look. But, by the time I had removed almost all of the interloping dark hairs, the cumulative effect of their absence became apparent to me. In doing what I thought was a positive thing (and I still do), I created a negative thing. The open area I left, not nearly as serious as a moth nibble would be, was enough to create a visual “depression” in that tiny area of Lea’s chest. I am embarrassed to have to tell you this, but I had to.

Lea has another minor defect, which is absolutely due to wear (or maybe moths), and not Rosalie caused. 😉 I am showing it to you as the other inset in my second image You can see the bare area on either side of the black floss extended “X” that delineates the area between her beautiful and glossy coral floss nose (with dark airbrushed nostrils) and the little dab of rose coloring representing her mouth. You really don’t notice the bare area very much, both because of its location on the tip of Lea’s muzzle and because the underlying fabric is basically the same color as the missing mohair.

One last minor thing I want to mention is what is going on with two of Lea’s six right side whiskers (left as you face her. Those two whiskers are each about 3/4 of the length of Lea’s remaining 10 whiskers. I don’t know how they got abbreviated, given the fact that the rest of her whiskers are so nice, but the two shorter whiskers now have minds of their own. Rather than inconspicuously taking their place(s) among Lea’s straight and uniform whiskers, one shorty curls up, and the other curls down. 🙂

I can’t think of anything else to mention; you probably realize that Lea’s amber eyes are glass and that her finger tube is cardboard—both in keeping for her 1950s production. I already mentioned the still-nice slight darkening of her chest, but you should be able to see that the rest of her coloring is fantastic. If you still have a question, by all means write.

Lea is a wonderful exemplar of a rarely-seen Steiff puppet. Whether your thing is lions or puppets, this wonderful piece of Steiff history will do your collection proud. If you can bear to give her up when she arrives, the Steiff collector in your life will be absolutely delighted. If Lea has not finished her Thespian life, I am giving you a few ideas.

Now that my Leo Puppet has been reunited with his mate, please consider keeping them together! Leo’s expression has always struck me as a bit melancholy; I bet his being joined with his beautiful mate would make him brighten up. 🙂

WHATEVER YOU DECIDE TO DO ABOUT LEA OR ANY OF MY OTHER STEIFF ITEMS, PLEASE BE SURE TO SEE THE ARTICLE I HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT STEIFF 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.