stuffed animal: Golden Age of the Circus: Giraffe in Caged Circus Wagon

Margarete Steiff founded German-based plush toy company Steiff in 1880. Margarete first designed and sold plush elephants as pincushions, but the plush proved just as popular with children. In the following years, Margarete designed plush dogs, cats, and pigs. Margarete����_��s nephew, Richard, joined the company in 1902 and designed the first jointed bear. The stuffed bears became a hit with adults and children. Visitors who flocked to the boardwalks in New Jersey����_��s seaside resorts took home teddy bears as prizes and souvenirs. Women����_��s magazines featured ads for bear accessories and offered up-to-date patterns for sewing bear clothes. As early as 1907, Steiff produced more than 974,000 teddy bears.

The company has designed more than 16,000 different animals and each is meticulously hand-sewn and hand-finished making the plush a treasure for children and collectors. Steiff����_��s Golden Age of the Circus, an exclusive North American series, was released over a five-year period (1986-1991). The series featured more than 20 pieces that included traveling wagons with animal cargo, performers, and vendors, and captured the spirit of early circus culture in Ameri In the 19th and 20th centuries, the circus became one of the most popular forms of public entertainment in Ameri The circus offered people from town and the farms all around such sights, such variety, such sophisticated entertainment, and such strange doings as they had never imagined.