Category:Steiff: Difference between revisions

Margarete Steiff was born on 24 July 1847. When she was 18 months old, she suffered a high fever and as a result her legs became paralysed and it was painful to use her right arm. Three years later, she was diagnosed with polio, and all attempts at finding a cure were unsuccessful. However, despite this, Margarete strove to lead a normal life. In spite of the pain in her right hand, Margarete took sewing lessons, and at the age of 17, she finally completed her training as a seamstress. She started working part-time in a shop owned by her sisters, Marie and Pauline, and when they left their home town some 8 years later, Margarete continued on her own.

In 1874, Margarete’s father converted a room in their house into a workshop for his daughter, and from her first earnings, Margarete bought a sewing machine of her own. In 1877, she opened a ready-to-wear felt clothing business, and before long, she was able to take on several seamstresses. Shortly after the founding of her business, Margarete saw a pattern for a small fabric elephant in an issue of "Modenwelt" magazine, dated 8th December. She sewed a pincushion shaped like a small elephant based on this design, which was called the "Elefäntle". These small fabric animals proved to be very popular. In 1880, Margarete Steiff GmbH was officially founded, and the "Elefäntle" became the company's first big-selling product. Six years later, Margarete had sold over 5,000 elephants. In 1890, Margarete's brother Fritz built her a house with a suitably equipped living area on the first floor and a small shop on the ground floor, which was named "Felt Toy Manufacturing Facility". Even today, the street on which this house was built is called "Margarete-Steiff-Strasse”.

The trademark "Steiff - Button in Ear" was developed by another of Margarete's nephews, Franz Steiff, in 1902. The aim of this trademark was to fend off the vast numbers of cheap imitations and to make the company's own products unmistakable. In the same year, Margarete won the Grand Prix at the World Exhibition in St. Louis. Margarete's nephew Richard Steiff made detailed drawings of zoo animals, including bears, which were modified for designs suitable for the Steiff range. This was the key to their success! Quick to respond to the Teddy Rooseveldt incident, they exhibited at the 1903 Leipzig Toy Fair and a buyer from New York ordered 3,000 bears to sell in his department store. Steiff made about 975,000 bears each year.

Other manufacturers tried to emulate Steiff's success, but the Steiff name remains associated with top-quality bears.

References

• Cockrill, Pauline, The Teddy Bear Encyclopedia, Dorling Kindersley 1993, 2001
• History of Steiff Bears
• Cockrill, Pauline, The Ultimate Teddy Bear Book, Dorling Kindersley 1991
• History of the Teddy Bear