The concept of stuffed animals are reflected in tomb paintings that date back a really long time to Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia civilizations. Based upon the paintings as they have been discovered and translated, it would appear that stuffed animals had a purpose in religious ceremony and ritual as well as being used for the purpose of human play. Medieval Europe used stuffed animals in mystery plays to represent animals seen in the Bible stories. Stuffed animals were used to represent characters like the serpent in the Garden of Eden or lions in the story of Daniel in the lions’ den. These animal roles were a pivotal part of the story that could not be ignored, but could not acted out by a human actor either. Therefore, the stuffed animals worked much better to fill the part.
Toys became a booming industry during the Industrial Revolution in Europe. Soft toys became increasingly popular among the population with the Steiff Corporation of Germany quickly becoming the industry leader. However, all stuffed animals are not always made by mechanized industry and a great deal of samples of stuffed animals have been found made in a more homemade genre with stuffings full of stray, cotton, batting, rags, and even beans. Some stuffed animals have even been found to have been made from stuffing the skins of hunted animals, but it is unclear whether these were animals that were made for use as a toy, or if they were utilized to become display items which would be more of a taxidermy utilization, not necessarily a toy.
Among the most popular stuffed animals, the teddy bear and the sock monkey almost always rank high toward the top of the list. Both have been in production since the early 1900s, while there is evidence that sock monkeys may have been popular much earlier, although not in formal production. Today, soft toys and stuffed animals remain popular. In recent years the Ty Company brought back a renaissance of sorts to the stuffed animal market with their Beanie Baby line. Animal lovers, children and collectors from countries all over the world bought up as many stuffed animals as Ty Company could produce including stuffed versions of lizards, dinosaurs, unicorns, and goldfish along with the standard animal patterns of bears, cats, dogs, bunnies, etc. Today, literally hundreds if not thousands, of companies produce stuffed animals for sale worldwide.