SPARKLING Little Sister Steiff Peggy Penguin Bird ID

This sweet girl joins her mohair cousin in my shop. I don’t typically have critters made after the 1960s or early 1970s, and, with her incised script, “lentil” button, Peggy almost fits into that category. She is bigger than her catalogued size of 12 centimeters, and, in fact, she is bigger than her mohair cousin, who is catalogued at 14 centimeters! This Peggy measures about 13.5 centimeters to the top of her head, just under 5 3/8 inches.

This is the smallest sister of the three Peggys who were made in this general design, and her button tells me that she is one of the earliest. The flag that Peggy’s button used to anchor was printed with article number 2505/12, and although that number appeared on the flags of Peggys made between 1976 and 1990, her lentil button tells us she is from one of the first two years of that series. The buttons on Steiff animals changed to brass after 1977.

Unlike her mohair cousin, Peggy’s covering is made from a combination of acrylic and cotton. I tried to show you how lustrous that covering is. It is impossible to see that from her white fibers, although they are lustrous to some extent when the light hits them in just the right direction. But Peggy’s black fibers do nothing short of sparkle!

Another thing, even the BEST photography could not show is something you can only detect from feel. I don’t know what Peggy’s stuffing is made from, but she is delightfully soft and squeezable. I think she is stuffed with foam, but I am not sure.

Peggy’s beak is covered in felt, which still retains most of its black airbrushed accents, and her feet are made from several layers of felt, glued together and hardened to allow her to stand. The undersides of her feet are white—or as white as wool felt actually looks. The top sides appear to have gray airbrushing, which, upon my first casual view, I took to be dirt, but it is not! I did not get a good closeup picture of the tops of her feet; your best view is in my second image.

I can’t think of anything else to tell you, but please write if you have a question. Whether she will be sitting in your vitrine or she will be waddling into the home of a Steiff or penguin collector you want to surprise, a Peggy should be part of every Steiff collection.

WHATEVER YOU DECIDE TO DO ABOUT PEGGY 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.