Vintage Bear Profiles #1: c.1915 Steiff, "Fritz"

Fritz is a c.1915 cinnamon Steiff bear, measuring approximately 13" tall. He still retains the all-important button in ear, a trademark patented by Steiff in 1904. Fritz, as you can see from the photos, is in far from mint condition! He is missing a substantial amount of his cinnamon mohair and he has areas of damage to his muzzle area and his paw pads, some of which have been repaired rather poorly. He also has a few holes in his mohair. It is well known that vintage cinnamon bears don't tend to survive that well; this is due to the fact that the dye used to create the cinnamon colour weakened the mohair significantly. Cinnamon bears in good condition are hard to come by, and command high prices when they do show up. Fritz has obviously been very well loved over the years. He came with some written provenance from his previous owner, which details a rather sad story about his past.

I intend to have Fritz restored in the not-so-distant future, so as to preserve as much of him as possible. His nose damage stands out at the moment because at some point in the past he has had some rather obvious 'repairs' - if you can call them that! I think he will be much happier if these repairs are done more sensitively, so as not to be a focal point!

I do think Fritz is a character - despite all his 'flaws' he looks like a happy bear, and given his history he's done well to keep his 'chin up'.

I have dressed Fritz in some knitted clothes I bought for him because of him being so fragile. The clothes should help to protect him from any further damage and keep him warm! He also wears some baby booties to protect his fragile paw pads which would otherwise possibly leak stuffing (these booties were actually made for low birth weight babies, but they fit his large feet rather well!)



Fritz is a charming old Steiff - considering he's over 90 years old, he's doing pretty well really!