The man walked up to me a little anxious, surely hoping that my answer to his question would bring him relief.
Were you around when they sold the elephant? he asked.
I knew exactly what he was talking about. I had seen the gigantic gray stuffed elephant on a table against a wall in the auction house. You couldn’t miss it. It stood out among two rows of large stuffed Martha DeRaimo-Burch and Deb Canham teddy bears (names I was not familiar with since I’m not a bear collector).
Yes, I told him. It was auctioned off some time ago. He was crestfallen. Curious, I asked what he would he do with such a big toy. (Click on the photo for a full view of the elephant.)
It was for his grandson, he said. The child was 3 years old and had a one-year-old brother. The man said that he had also bought the child a stuffed lion once. Then I was a little sad for him. But with auctions, all may not be lost. The oversized elephant or another such animal could easily show up on an auction table again. It always happens – gone today but back tomorrow.
I had never seen a stuffed elephant that size before. I checked the auction sheet to find out more about it:
“72” L. 45″ T. Tagged Hansa Designer Collection gray plush standing Elephant. This was originally purchased at FAO Schwartz in the 1960s.”
Hansa is a company that makes handcrafted plush toys based on animals from around the world (One one site, I found a cute little stuffed tarsier from Southeast Asia). The company pucciManuli, which sells the toys, noted that they were first designed for European collectors. Each animal comes with a tag explaining its “habitat, lifestyle, gestation period, care of their young and eating habits,” according to the site.
The animals are handcrafted and sewn inside out, the bodies are sculptured to create muscular features, each animal has at least 42 separate pieces and the hides are man-made furs, according to the Hansa website. The animals are made with metal frames so they could be “ridden” by children and “even adults up to 250 pounds in weight,” according to Stuffe and Nonsense.
The animals come in a range of sizes and prices. One site was selling a 46 ½” gray elephant for $1,600. You could get a 27 ½” elephant for $740. Other animals included a white 57″ polar bear for $800, a 78″ standing grizzly bear for $1,400 and a 41 ½” lion for $860. That cute tarsier was selling for around $20.
One one site, I came across a $500 three-foot tall moose that would be shipped by truck. At the auction, the auctioneer jokingly told bidders that someone would take the elephant to the car for them. For an animal that size, the vehicle would have to be a truck or van, not a car.
I bumped into the grandfather as he and his wife were leaving the auction. Too bad about the elephant, I said to them. She noted that her daughter would likely be pleased that they didn’t buy it.
Maybe not the grandson, though. I could imagine the toddler playing with the elephant – climbing on its back, pulling its flappy ears, wrestling with its trunk.
By the way, the elephant sold for $110.
