Tiny Adorable Early Steiff Sitting Bunny Rabbit Hase Pre-Sonny All ID

This model of the Steiff sitting rabbit, the second smallest, joins her tiny sister in my shop.

Hase is the predecessor to the same size “Sonny” rabbit (actually, he is also characterized as “Hase,” the German word for “hare”) who continued the line starting in 1967. There were still many years until a “Sonny” came on the scene.

Hase is the earliest 9-centimeter rabbit in this family of four; her article number, 3309, with the faded but legible second “3,” tells you that. This series was made between 1951 and 1958, but I can be a bit more precise in dating her because Hase’s chest tag—actually the fact that she HAS a chest tag—dates her to 1953 at the earliest. The only animals who had chest tags before 1953 were animals with proper names, and those names were printed in red. The little seated brown and white Cockie cocker spaniel in my shop is such an example.

Even if little Hase is the youngest she could be (born in 1958), she would be going on 65 this year. And, of course, she could be five years older than that. Despite her age, Hase is in very good, maybe even with a “plus” added, condition.

The “09” in Hase’s article number denotes her catalogued size, as measured to the top of her head. She is fairly close to that at about 8.5 centimeters high. Of course, you will want to leave room for her ears—and for her flag, which extends even higher. Five or six inches should provide enough vertical clearance for Hase to be displayed comfortably.

Hase has two issues, both of which are quite minor, but I will stay on the conservative side of “excellent.” One issue is the very slight difference in the brown color of her two sides. I am guessing she was displayed with her left side facing a window. Of course, you might very well want to display Hase facing front, so that you could see her sweet facing looking back at you. In that case, the subtle difference between her left and right sides disappears, and Hase presents a uniform and adorable picture.

Hase’s other issue, still so small that others might still say she was in excellent condition, is the small moth kiss on the lower left side of her head. I am showing an enlargement of that kiss to you in my eighth image, and I am showing it in situ on Hase. That kiss is about 3 millimeters wide, and had I not brought it to your attention, you may have never noticed it.

I want to go back to Hase’s flag. To me, it HAD (notice the past tense) a much more serious issue than the faded “3.” Hase’s button was attached at the EXTREME edge of the flag, which had already begun to fray before Hase arrived. It is odd that the button was placed in the middle of the flag as opposed to the usual place above all the printing, but its placement at the edge of the flag was really stupid. I had to be careful handling the flag, since it had already started to fray, but I managed, CAREFULLY, to put numerous tiny stitches with yellow thread, adhering the flag directly to Hase’s ear. Hase’s flag issue does not contribute to my assessment of her condition, but it is (or was) annoying in any case.

Since I have been talking about Hase’s IDs, I should note that her chest tag in in fairly nice condition. I could not lift it to show you the attachment hole, since the string, which is very short to begin with, goes through the tag, and through the bell, and also through Hase’s ribbon. I will tell you what I cannot show you. With all of that responsibility, 😉 the string has only VERY slightly pulled up from the hole and does not endanger the tag’s placement at all. The tag has some small creases., but you barely see them.

Hase’s bell still tinkles with its tiny pebble clapper. And while I am in that general area, I will note that Hase’s ribbon seems to have been pink initially, but its fading is uniform and it is still tacked to her back. In my nitpicking mode, I will tell you that there are three teeny-tiny light brown stains on right loop of the bow, and that the ends are very minimally frayed.

I want to go back to Hase’s coloring. Most of it is really nice. Her white areas are still white, and her black areas—the mark above her cute bunny tail and the areas covering about half of the backs of her ears, could not have been any blacker when Hase left Giengen. I photographed her with a blue background, because the black color I typically use would have swallowed up the tops of her ears.

Hase retains lots of rose-colored airbrushing on the felt insides of her ears and an equally generous dollop of rose covering both halves of the “x” made by the intersection of red floss stitching depicting her nose and mouth. Now that I am in that area of Hase’s face, I will tell you that she retains her original whiskers—four on each side.

I can’t think of anything else to tell you, but please write if you have a question, In addition to my three seated bunny relatives, there are other bunnies in my shop, so you can start your pre-Easter preparations right here.

WHATEVER YOU DECIDE TO DO ABOUT HASE 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 JANUARY, 2023.