STEIFF, Margarete, German seamstress and entrepreneur. In 1880 she began a mail-order business, making and selling rag-doll type toys. Later she introduced animals (elephants, bears, etc). Finally she made clockwork teddy bears with a button in one ear. These were immediately popular when exhibited at the Leipzig Fair in 1903. But Margarete was not the first with teddy bears, these were on the market in the USA in 1902 but were probably independent developments.