Richard Steiff gifted his bears movement, he turned them upright, jointed their limbs and thus was born the now world-famous Teddy bear. Richard first used string and discs as a method of jointing his bears. Richard then adopted metal rods for jointing his bears. Recognised as the second stage of Richard’s development following the string jointed method, rod jointed bears are viewed as a true treasure. A golden mohair would be Richard’s favoured choice, but he made very few using a white mohair resulting in such examples becoming great rarities. It is a white rarity replicated here. True to the original he has “rod” joints, large black boot button eyes, horizontal seam from ear to ear, sealing wax nose, pink stitched mouth and five black stitched claws. He also wears an authentic elephant “Button in Ear”. He encapsulates all those early characteristics and is proud to represent and celebrate one of the earliest surviving designs of Richard Steiff, a true marvel.