What's black and white but pink all over? Collectors merely can’t get sufficient of these uncommon bears. ; On this case, it is when a vintage Steiff panda is listed on Ruby Lane! Steiff is finest recognized for its Teddy bears, so it isn't any surprise that their basic panda bears are designed and produced with the identical understanding and respect for design, appeal, quality, and scale as those of their traditional Teds. Let’s take a look at Steiff’s pandas from the 1930’s through the early 1970’s - Steiff’s “panda prime time” - and see what makes these black and white beauties so beary particular from the collector’s perspective.
Pandas appeared "within the flesh" in several main zoos throughout the globe in the late 1930's. They instantly rocketed to international superstar standing. Piggybacking on the success of big panda teddy their actual-life cousins, pandas made their debut within the Steiff line in 1938; by 1939, they have been being produced in 15 and 30 cm on a commercial scale by way of 1942 total. Their faces had been detailed with brown and black pupil eyes, a black hand embroidered nose, and an open, peach coloured felt mouth. This especially valuable design was five ways jointed and made from black and white mohair. The black circles round their eyes had been created by hand airbrushing. Because of wartime material shortages, some models had been produced with linen or different alternative fabrics within the place of felt on their hand and foot paw pads.
The success of its first early panda inspired Steiff to provide more pandas in the road as soon because the factory reopened for business in the late 1940s. As they did with a core group of proven and common products, Steiff produced the similar models that have been in the road pre-warfare, simply to get merchandise they knew would promote into the marketplace as quickly as doable. In the case of the panda, Steiff began making the prewar design once more, however only in 30 cm by 1950. These early postwar manufacturing pandas usually had inferior high quality greyish-black felt on their pads as top quality felt supplies have been still only available in very restricted portions at that time.