A worn bear with no ear button, believed to be Steiff-made, went at a Cotswolds auction for £1,250 (February 2026, according to JustCollecting), while Teddy Girl, a well-documented Steiff bear made in 1905, sold for £110,000 at Christie's in 1994. No single reason explains the gap. These are prices already paid, not forecasts.
This site is not connected with Steiff, or with any auction house, dealer or retailer named below. We have not handled or valued any of these bears, and we cannot value yours.
What old Steiff bears have sold for
These four sales are all UK auctions. Each date is labelled as the source gives it: a report date for Tennants and Winterton, a sale date for Hansons, and a sale month for the Cotswolds bear.
| Date | Auction house | Estimate | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 February 2022 (report date) | Tennants | £600-800 plus buyer's premium | £2,500 plus buyer's premium |
| 13 May 2022 (report date) | Richard Winterton, Tamworth | Not given | £4,000 hammer price |
| 16 August 2023 (sale date) | Hansons, Staffordshire | £4,000-£6,000 | £3,800 hammer price; £4,985 total with buyer's premium |
| February 2026 (sale month, per JustCollecting) | A Cotswolds auction | £300 to £500 | £1,250 |
Tennants sold a rare Roly Poly Steiff. Its yellow mohair bear drew bidders from around the world. Richard Winterton sold a 72cm bear, about 120 years old and clearly well loved. The Cotswolds bear was believed to be Steiff-made, from about 1908. Its estimate was £300 to £500, so £1,250 is more than four times the low end and well above the high end. The report does not say whether £1,250 includes fees.
Estimate, hammer price and total paid
One bear can have three different numbers in circulation. Hansons guided its cinnamon bear at £4,000-£6,000 before the sale. It went under the hammer at £3,800, below that range. Once buyer's premium was added, a private UK bidder paid £4,985 in all, inside it.
Tennants quoted its £2,500 "plus buyer's premium", so the buyer paid more than £2,500. Auction Daily reports a Titanic Mourning bear that hammered at EUR 180,000, or $250,505 with fees.
Antiques Roadshow notes that there are no hard and fast rules, but an auction price can often be half the retail value. For other objects it can be higher. When you see a figure, ask which one it is: estimate, hammer price, or total with fees.
Records, and why they do not describe your bear
Teddy Girl sold at Christie's London on 5 December 1994 for £110,000. That was more than 18 times the estimate. The bear was made in 1905 and had a particularly well-documented history, according to Guinness World Records.
A Steiff "Louis Vuitton" bear, made in 2000 and measuring 45cm, sold for €213,720.00 at Christie's Monaco on 14 October 2000.
According to Auction Daily, the Special Steiff Auction held by Ladenburger Spielzeugauktion GmbH in Giengen on 1 July 2023 included the Titanic Mourning bear above. Auction Daily says the first half of the same collection had sold in January 2023 for over USD 475,000. Auction Daily adds that since 2000, original antique Titanic Mourning bears have seldom been offered at auction, and those that were usually changed hands at $20,000 to $40,000.
The Auction Daily writer names no single cause and says the price combined history, rarity, condition and timing. These sales are exceptional one-offs, not a ceiling or a floor for an ordinary bear.
What sets one price apart from another
Age and production
According to the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA), Richard Steiff designed the "Bear 55 PB" in 1902, the first plush bear to have movable limbs. An early design does not make every early bear scarce, as a later section shows.
Colour and face
Hansons' bear specialist described cinnamon bears as scarce and costly toys of around 1905-1908. According to Auction Daily, every seventh bear Steiff made in the early 1900s had a seam down the centre of its face, and Auction Daily says this was done to use the mohair fabric efficiently.
Condition and repair
PM Antiques & Collectables, a second-hand dealer, says damage, wear or restoration can cut value sharply. Hansons reported that the paw pads on its bear's left arm had been replaced, possibly in the 1920s. The Cotswolds auctioneer described a play-loved bear with straw coming out of its nose and very worn fur.
The button in the ear
Franz Steiff designed the "Button in Ear" trademark in 1904, and the DPMA gives 1905 as the year it was entered at the patent office. The Science Museum Group records that the early button was metal and first carried an elephant symbol, later replaced by the name Steiff. The Cotswolds auctioneer said buttons are often lost as time goes on. Winterton's bear kept its button and a working growler. Its fur has darkened to blond, and it was white when new.
History
Teddy Girl's documented history is the clearest example. None of the sources here puts a figure on it.
Old is not the same as rare
In 1907, the DPMA says, Steiff had 400 employees and 1,800 home workers and made 973,999 teddy bears, about 1.7 million toys in all. A bear a century old is therefore not automatically scarce. The next two sources sell bears, so read them as trade views.
On a page we read on 31 October 2026, PM Antiques & Collectables puts common modern Steiff bears at £20 to £100 typically, and says that early or rare bears can go past £1,000, depending on quality and provenance. Bel Air, an authorised Steiff retailer, warns that value does not rise for every Steiff bear. In its view, prices follow collector interest and condition. Winterton's 120-year-old bear made £4,000, but the auction house called it rare.
No button, repaired parts
Two sales show how this plays out. The Cotswolds bear had no Steiff button in its ear, and was worn. Even so, the auctioneer said they very strongly believed it was Steiff-made, and it sold for £1,250. Hansons' cinnamon bear had replaced paw pads, which Hansons reported, and sold for a total of £4,985.
These are two separate sales, not proof that a missing button or a repair has a set effect on price. Hansons also reported that the family who found its bear had paid £130 for two teddies at a car boot sale.
When sources disagree
Record lists differ between websites. Where they disagreed, we followed the Guinness World Records entry and left the other figure out. Keep valuations and sales apart too. At an Antiques Roadshow event in San Diego in 2001, an expert said he had sold a similar cinnamon bear for $6,000, which was resold for about $7,000, and put the bear in front of him at $8,000 to $10,000. That was a spoken valuation from 2001, not a sale.
Looking at your own bear: questions, not a valuation
Cullens of Surrey, a dealer, advises buyers to look up comparable bears and earlier auction results before judging a fair price.
- Check whether there is a button in the ear, and note honestly what it looks like.
- Describe the condition plainly, including wear, repairs and replaced parts.
- Keep any paperwork or family history that records where the bear has been.
- Compare it with dated sales from named auction houses, noting whether each figure is an estimate, a hammer price or a total.
A valuer at an auction house can look at the bear itself. This page cannot.
