Steiff Bear Origins

      Have you ever wondered where the Steiff teddy bears came from or why they were called "Steiff" teddy bears? Have you ever wondered why "original" Steiff bears are worth so much? At about the same time Teddy Roosevelt was giving teddy bears their great name, jointed plush bears were being developed in Germany be a family business headed by Margarete Steiff. Confined to a wheelchair after a childhood bout of polio, she had become an expert seamstress, making children's clothes. In 1880 she formed a mail order company making stuffed toys and other items. The first was a pincushion elephant, an animal that was to appear on Steiff's original trademark.

      At first, the Steiff bears were unsuccessful, until the Leipzig Fair in March 1903, when Hermann Berg, a toy buyer for the New York department store George Borgfeldt and Co, bought 3,000 teddy bears. In 1905, the Steiff bear was legally protected by the famous "button in ear" trademark. He was so popular that the factory was forced to expand three times between 1903 and 1908.

      During this period known as the Barenjahre (Bear Years) the number of teddy bears produced annually rose dramatically, from 12,000 to about 975,000 - a phenomenal figure never since repeated. The teddy bear's popularity was boosted by the introduction of Seymour Eaton's Roosevelt Bears. These rhyming tales originally appeared in Sunday newspapers starting in 1905 and were then published in four books between 1906 and 1907. The tales started with The Roosevelt Bears, their Travels and Adventures, which inspired many novelties such as mugs, spoons, and books. By about 1907, Teddy's Bear was universally known as the teddy bear and had become well established in the home.