The Way We Were: Excerpts from the 1960 CFA Yearbook, Part 6

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History of the Siamese, Part 2
by Carlon Boren

The earliest information on Siamese in Europe makes no reference to the Blue Pointed Siamese. While the first Siamese were imported into England as early as 1883, the first recorded showing of a Blue Point Siamese occurred at the Holland House show in London in 1896. Mr. Spearman, a young Englishman just home from Siam, exhibited a Blue Pointed cat. The judge said it was not a Siamese and refused to judge it as a Siamese! Mr. Spearman insisted that it was a Siamese and that there were others like it in Siam. At about this time, Miss Forestier Walker, one of the first breeders to introduce Siamese into England, wrote: "We have heard of 'any other color Siamese', but these cats of foreign breed, claiming to be Siamese are but the result of a cross. We have been told of black, blue and tabby Siamese, but the fanciers of Siamese look askance at these freaks and feel that it is worse than useless to attempt to produce any other variety than that which we have learned by custom to designate as the Royal Cat of Siam." In 1902, the Siamese Cat Club of England refused to recognize the Blue Pointed Siamese and it was omitted from their standard of points at that time.

The origin of the Blue Point Siamese is also shrouded in obscurity. That the Blue Point Siamese cat existed for some years at least, in Siam seems proven by such writers as these: Henry Milner Rideout, in 'The Siamese Cat', published in 1908, writes: "The King has officially declared that the Blue Cats are royal"; Huidekoper in 'The Cat', published still earlier in 1895, says: "The preferable colors are a dun or fawn color, although they are sometimes a silver gray". Since the Siamese people kept no records of their cats and usually allowed them to mate at random, mutation of black to blue within the stock seems much less likely than hybridization in Siam with the cats already possessing the maltese-blue gene. True it is that the Siamese cats imported into England in the early days rarely carried the blue gene or it would have cropped out more frequently and earlier in the history of the fancy in England and would have been well known to the early judges there.

In England, a few years before World War II, interest was beginning to be shown in Blue Pointed Siamese. These had caused some considerable controversy among breeders, many of whom were of the opinion that they were "sports" and therefore could not breed true, but a few whose convictions were based on research refuted these opinions and "The Blue Pointed Siamese Cat Club" was formed. Through the offices of this Club, which guaranteed classes and offered its cups and specials at all the shows, Blue Points became a separate breed listed on the Governing Council's list of breeds as 24a, and specimens were shown in their own classes, not, as had been the custom before the advent of the Club, mixed with the Seal Points in the ordinary classes. Mrs. W. Cox-Ife was noted for her wonderful Blue Pointed Siamese and was deeply interested in the new breed. She kept the Club in a flourishing position in her capacity as secretary, acting also as its delegate on the Gov. Council. Thus, we have seen, following the appearance of the Blue Pointed Siamese in Europe, a period of thirty years elapsed before it was accepted in England. Following recognition, more and more Blue Pointed specimens, every year, appeared on the show bench in England and many became full champions because they were in every way worthy of the honors they had won.

At about the time the Blue Pointed Siamese were accepted in England, we find recorded evidence of Blue Point kittens showing up in the Siamese litters in America. In the CFA Register, Volume XIII, two entries were listed: Lanfine Chik A Boo, Blue Point Siamese male, born August, 1927, and owned by Mrs. E. E. Stroud of Toronto, Canada; and Siamese Star Liao Wha, Blue Point Siamese female, born August, 1926, and owned by Mrs. E. E. Inslee of Detroit, Michigan. Both of these cats were sired by Ch. Siamese Star Prince Favo. Mrs. James S. Carpenter, CFA Recorder, wrote that: "…early entries of Siamese often described them as 'light' and it s possible there may have been Blue Point registration under such classification". Mrs. Cobb also wrote that "at the Boston show held in 1929, a Blue Point Siamese female, Djer-Kits' Siamese Star Chin Tan, owned by Mrs. M.K. Metcalf, was first in the open class, competing in the same class with Seal Points". It was not until a new standard was adopted by the Siamese Society of America, in 1934, that the Blue Point Siamese was given first recognition in America.

So much interest was shown by American fanciers in the background of the Blue Pointed Siamese cat, that a comprehensive study of the genetics involved was made by Dr. Clyde H. Keeler of Harvard Medical School, Virginia R. Cobb and Doris Bryant. The results of this scientific study were published in 'The Cat Gazette', November, 1934. Their investigations showed that the Blue Point Siamese possessed the maltese-blue gene, and might rightfully be called the Malto-Siamese, just as the Seal Point Siamese cat might be called the non-Tabby Siamese.

These investigators believed that the Blue Point Siamese cat was the result of a cross with a short-hair blue cat. The cats from which Dr. Keeler compiled his data were almost all taken from the registered Blue Pointed Siamese in this country and which had descended from cats imported from England by Mrs. H. E. Naatz (Siamese Star Cattery). In this study, there was an early English Seal Point Siamese, named Ch. Carlisle Lad, born 1910, which appeared in the pedigree of nearly all the Blue Pointed Siamese registered in America. The parents of Ch. Carlisle Lad were listed as "unknown and probably one or both were short-haired hybrids with yellow eyes, produced form a mating of some short-haired blue to a Siamese". Dr. Keeler also further stated: "In absence of information to the contrary, it would appear that Ch. Carlisle Lad may also have introduced the blue gene through an outcross to a short-hair blue. Russian Blues were popular in his day in England".

A pedigree chart showing the heredity of Bleu Point Siamese was compiled from registration records of the Siamese Cat Register of England, by Keeler, Cobb and Bryant, tracing the ancestry of the Blue Pointed Siamese cats in England and America. Some of the earliest registration of English Seal Pointed Siamese which were hybrid for the blue gene were as follows:

Male:

Female:

Carlisle Lad (parents unknown)
Cairo Ramses (particulars unknown)
Jacob I (particulars unknown)
Jacob II (Jacob I x Rose)
Litabois (Bobolinko x Genifer)
Rajah (son of Carlisle Lad)
Errol (Carlisle Lad x Kaida)
Chocolate Cream (son of Jajah)
Billson (ancestry uncertain)
Robin Goodfellow (Errol x Si-He)
Datoh of Petaling (gene from Bigabois)
Kailas (Robin Goodfellow x Queenie)
Prince Favo (Robin Goodfellow x Queenie)
Yet (son of Datoh of Petling)
Woodroof Adam (son of Wendie)
Lanfine Kailula (son of Kailas)
Ping Ting (son of Prince Favo)
Sadko (son of Mee Zee)

Dinah (daughter of Cairo Ramses)
Zoe (particulars unknown)
Lady June Noisette (Bungy x See Noi)
Si-He (Montrose Boy x Tib)
Winkie (Raj x Velvie)
Susan (daughter of Dinah)
Queenie (gene from Bigabois)
Miri (daughter of chocolate Cream)
Wendie (Chocolate Cream x Winkie)
Little Puma (Datoh of Petaling x Miri)
Adamina (Woodroofe Adam x Donatina of Cornwall)
Mee Zee (daughter of Prince Favo)
Lanfine Isma (daughter of Little Puma)
Salome (daughter of Blue Samurai)
Shelagh (daughter of Salome)

It is from the foregoing stock (Seal Points hybrid for blue gene) that the earliest known Blue Pointed Siamese cats were originated and registered in England. It is recorded, in 1924, by Major E. Sydney Woodiwiss (Woodroofe Cattery) that ten Blue Pointed Siamese were registered in Volume I, Siamese Cat Register, as follows:

Male:	Female:
Prince (Jacob II x Rhoda), born 1898 Donato (Errol x Si-He), born 1921 Caruso (particulars unknown)	Rhoda (Jacob I x Zoe), born 1894 Princess (Jacob II x Rhoda), born 1898 Menam (Jacob II x Rhoda), born 1898 Lady Blue Blue of Pegu (particulars unknown - imported; Owner, Mrs. Spearman. Colour - blue points) Kuching Susan (Billson x Winkie) Eve of Woodroofe (Billson x Susan) Donatina of Cornwall (Billson x Susan), born 1923

Volume II of the Siamese Cat Register, 1927, lists only four additional Blue Point Siamese Cats, which are:

Male:	Female:
Bluboi (Robin Goodfellow x Queenie) Mystic (Litabois x Lady June Noisette), born 1924	Woodroofe Juliana (Litabois x Lady June Noisette), born 1925 Justina (Litabois x Lady June Noisette), born 1925

There were four later additions to the foregoing list of early English Blue Points, by Keeler, Cobb and Bryant and included the following :

Male:	Female:
Blue Samurai (Sadko x Mee Zee) Chief Nado (gene from Prince Favo x Chula whose parentage is unknown)	Chin Tan (Yet x Adamina) Lanfine Mono Lo (Lanfine Kailula x Lanfine Isma)

In conclusion, whether the Maltese gene was added in Siam alone, or whether in Europe as well, the Blue Pointed Siamese cat is here to stay. Admittedly, it will breed true when color bred specimens are mated. Blue Pointed Siamese will constantly crop out of untested Seal Pointed stock, just as Blue Persians crop out of Black Persians hybrid for the Blue gene. The early blood lines, here in America, which had either Blue Pointed Siamese or Seal Pointed Siamese hybrid for the blue gene, in their background, came from the following pioneer catteries: 'Siamese Star' (Mrs. H.E. Naatz); 'Siam' (Mrs. Karl B. Norton); 'Ming Kwong' (Mrs. E. Beardon), and, 'Purachatar' (Miss Louise Frith). It is a great tribute to the foresight of the early Siamese breeders that the Blue Point Siamese cat is today universally recognized, registered and perpetuated for its own beautiful qualities.

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