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Siamese cat Cattery
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Siamese cattery in Florence
Brief History
The history of the Siamese as a purebred cat begins in the late 1800s with the first specimens arriving in Europe and the United States from ancient Siam (present-day Thailand), and the selection of the Siamese as we know it today has been going on since the 1960s, with results similar to those achieved today in the 1980s.
This is the official history, documented by expo catalogues, cat books, breeders' records and photographs. Are there traces of Siamese before the 20th century selection in the West? The answer is yes.
There are in fact Thai manuscripts called ‘Tamra Maew’ (Book of Cats) dedicated to the description of cat types found in Thailand. Each manuscript consists of 12 fan-fold sheets (a Thai binding technique called Samut Khoi), written on sheets created from tree bark. Six of the original manuscripts are in Thailand, while one is in the Asian Art Museum in Berlin and another in the British Library in London.
Each of the manuscripts contains drawings of different cats, accompanied by descriptions in verse of the cat's characteristics. The felines were also divided into two groups, those bringing good luck and those bringing bad luck according to local beliefs.
The sixth of the lucky cats is called Wichian Mat (moon diamond) and is the Siamese cat.
As can be seen, the cat below clearly has the typical colouring of the Siamese, i.e. a light body and dark extremities (ears, muzzle, tail and paws).
Initially, the manuscripts were thought to have been composed in the 1300s, whereas historians believe that the Tamra Maew was produced in the 1800s and no later than the 1700s.
In any case, it is important to know that the Siamese cat, or at any rate the proto-Siamese, i.e. a cat with the typical colouring of the breed already existed for a long time in ancient Siam (today Thailand).
This is very important because Siamese colouring was not known in Europe and had never been described before. This means in all probability that the mutation of the Siamese colouring originated in Thailand and was carried on through spontaneous mating between cats with the same gene until a sufficient population was reached locally to determine the non-loss of the recessive gene. In fact, it is known that the gene that determines the typical colour of the Siamese is the cs-cs gene, a recessive gene, i.e. it must be inherited from both the father and the mother in order to manifest itself (this is the reason why from two Siamese cats an Oriental cannot be born and from two Orientals a Siamese can be born).
We would like to remind you that the primordial cat was a black tiger cat with short hair and that all other variations are spontaneous and natural mutations brought about either by man through breeding or spontaneously in the case of mutations occurring in feline populations living in isolated places, such as the Kurilian cat of the Kurili islands.
So far, this is the certain information we have on the Siamese cat. Things changed drastically at the end of the 19th century when the Siamese cat made its appearance in Europe and in a short time conquered the world (then nascent and limited almost exclusively to Great Britain and the United States of America) of domestic cat breeding. Let us, however, go in order.
The letter opposite is dated November 1878 and is signed by David B. Sickles, a US diplomat working in the Bangkok consulate. The letter is addressed to Lucy Hayes, wife of then US President Ruthford B. Hayes, in which the consul writes ‘I have taken the liberty of forwarding you one of the finest specimens of Siamese cats that I have been able to procure in this country. I am informed that it is the first attempt ever made to send a Siamese cat to America'This is therefore the first attestation of a Siamese cat in the West. Unfortunately, we have no trace of offspring from this cat named Siam, as we know that she died the following year.
We have to wait another 6 years before we hear about the Siamese cat again in the West, i.e. 1884, when the British consul in Siam, Sir Edward Blencowe Gould, imported two Siamese cats, Pho and Mia (see photo), as a gift for his sister, Lilian Jane Gould (the first woman to be admitted to the Lyncean Academy). Gould fell so much in love with Siamese cats that she founded the first Siamese breed club in 1901.
In 1885, three kittens born to Pho and Mia were exhibited at the Crystal Palace at the first official cat show in the modern world, arousing considerable interest. From then on, and until the First World War when there was an abrupt halt to pet breeding in general for obvious reasons, the Siamese were regulars at the shows of the time, judging by the show catalogues that have come down to us.
From Mrs. Gould's letters we know that unfortunately the three kittens died without breeding, so Pho and Mia cannot be considered the progenitors of the breed, but it is certain that, given the presence of the Siamese in the expositions of the time, other cats were imported and within a short time there were enough of them to establish a real breeding programme both in Great Britain and in the United States. It is also important to emphasise that Pho and Mia were not given to the Consul by the King of Siam: Gould clearly writes that they were purchased by his brother from a Siamese trader before his departure. This version, which is certainly more prosaic and less romantic about the breed's origins, sheds light on the origins of the Siamese, which was therefore not a cat for the exclusive use of the Siamese monarchy but was probably widespread locally.
From this point on, the path taken by our beloved Siamese is clear and well documented by various sources. A continuous programme of display and selection led from the 1950s and especially the 1960s onwards to what we know today as the Siamese, selecting the extreme, slender traits in the form of the tubular body, almond-shaped eyes, large ears and very long tail that we have described in detail HERE. The history of the present-day Siamese is intricately linked to that of the Oriental cat (which we have described HERE) with which it shares everything: they are in fact sister breeds, except for the colour of their fur and eyes. Even in the more traditional associations such as the CFA, which defines Siamese as only Siamese in the four basic colours (seal, blue, lilac and chocolate), Siamese is allowed to be used for mating with Oriental breeds, as even in the standards the characteristics are identical in every respect (except colour) and an Oriental can easily have a Siamese as a progenitor who will be called an ‘Oriental colourpoint’, which is a sign of the indivisibility of the two breeds.
One may wonder if the Siamese as it was known until the 1950s has disappeared...The answer is no. Some breeders who loved that type of cat (softer than the present Siamese and less extreme in its traits) continued its selection. Over the years, however, the present Siamese had taken the place in the international feline registers of the original Siamese, which was then bred by several people but no longer had a name. This is how the first type of Siamese was recast on an official level: since Siam no longer existed and is now called Thailand, the old type of Siamese adopted THAI as its name. The Thai (or Old Style Siamese) is precisely the Siamese cat before it became extreme. Like the Siamese, the Thai also has different interpretations of the standard: there are breeders who prefer the very first type of Siamese (i.e. from the early 1900s) or others who prefer the type of Siamese from the 1950s, i.e. just before the extremes. The latter Thai do not reach the virtuosity of the current Siamese, but are nevertheless more slender. If you are interested in Thai, please contact a breeder of this breed who will certainly be able to give you more information on the subject than I can.
Although these breeds are now so completely divided as to be breeds in their own right - only TICA allows Thai people to have Siamese among their progenitors, but the opposite is forbidden - (and visibly different) they share common ancient ancestors: in my case, I appreciate the Thai and I appreciate the work of the breeders to continue their selection, but I am definitely in love with the Siamese -and Oriental- so much so that I have decided to breed them.
Here is a visual comparison of the two breeds using photos from the official websites of the major associations worldwide and not only nationally, i.e. CFA, TICA, FIFé and WCF, all of which are part of the World Cat Congress (THAI is currently not recognised by CFA-although some breeders are working towards recognition, so I have used two TICA photos for thai):
THAI CAT
Thai cat featured in the official description of the Thai breed on the TICA website
Best adult Thai cat of 2023
in Tica
RW BW SGC CLOUDCITY MR WONKA OF MILEHITHAIDI
Best Adult THAI of 2023 in WCF(Best Cat)
Master, EPR. Radimira Thai Riddle
Thai cat featured in the official
official description of the Thai breed on the FIFé website
SIAMESE CAT
Siamese cat featured in the official
official description of the siamese breed on the CFA website
Best Adult SIAMESE of 2023 in WCF (Best Cat)
Origun Fly Amadeus of Tanyuha's
Siamese cat featured in the official
official description of the siamese breed
on the TICA website
Siamese cat featured in the official
official description of the siamese breed
on the FIFé website
