Fawning Over This Early Silk Plush Steiff Baby Christmas Deer!

Here we have Steiff's 17 cm artificial silk plush Jungreh or fawn. She is standing, unjointed, and made from really rare and really unusual tan artificial silk plush. Her face is detailed with very large black button eyes and a black hand embroidered nose and mouth.

Steiff used artificial silk plush, a relatively inexpensive plush or mohair substitute, in times of war or hardship when their typically higher quality materials were not available. Artificial silk plush is delicate and doesn't wear as well as other materials, so very few items made from this fabric are still around today, making them of great interest to collectors.

This fawn was one of the first items produced after the factory reopened after WW2. Her pattern is identical to the pre-war fawn design which was made in mohair and velvet. She was made in 17 and 22 cm in 1948 and 1949 only.