Re-S t u f f i ng a Stei ff Ted dy Be ar Its not every day that a bear walks in our doors. Back in late 2019, A private client brought their father’s teddy bear to MTS for conservation. The bear has mohair fur on a cotton ground, wood wool (excelsior) filling, and shoe-button wooden eyes. The bear was characteristically similar to early teddy bears made by Steiff and Michtum. All we had to go on was the father’s birth year: 1923. To determine the manufacturer of the client’s bear we first closely examined its
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Fig. 23. Details of Steiff teddy bear before conservation.
materials and construction. The fine blond mohair pile and cotton fabric on the paws is seen consistently on the majority of Steiff bears. The earliest of these were stuffed with wood wool and sometimes kapok (a traditional futon filling.) Steiff bears have an internal skeleton consisting of cardboard disks and metal pins that allow the head, arms, and legs to move. We could feel the round disks connecting the head, arms, and legs to the body of the bear. As we continued to examine the bear, we located a metal button in its ear with the word “Steiff.” To
