CREAM OR FAWN PERSIANS.
This may be said to be the very latest variety in Persian breeds, and
one which bids fair to become very fashionable. The term “cream”
describes exactly what is the desired tint of these cats, but few and
far between are the specimens which are pale and even enough in colour
to be correctly described as creams. No doubt, in times past now and
again a cream cat would be seen exhibited in the “any variety” class,
but then they might be designated as freaks or flukes. Now, however,
fanciers of these cats have a system in their matings, and therefore,
as a result, there is a breed of cats established which until late
years were not recognised or classified.
[Illustration:
MRS. CLINTON LOCKE’S CREAM KITTEN.
]
It is true that the cream Persians seen in the show pens are often
much darker than is implied by the name, and, indeed, are really
fawn-coloured. The great thing, however, is to obtain an even tint
throughout, whether dark or light, and to avoid any patches, streaks,
or tabby markings. I think the very pale creams are more dainty and
fascinating than the darker cats, but the lighter the coat the more
difficult it is to obtain perfect uniformity of colour. Of course,
there will always be a certain amount of shading in cream cats—that
is, the spine line will be slightly darker, shading off on the sides
and under the stomach and tail. I think that creams are making more
rapid strides towards attaining the “almost unmarked” stage than are
silvers. Certainly, good creams of to-day are very slightly barred on
head or legs or tail, and this cannot be said as regards some of our
best silver cats. This is probably to be accounted for by the cautious
and wise discrimination used in mating creams by selecting blues or
tortoiseshells, and thus avoiding tabby-marked cats. It is a
peculiarity of cream cats that the eyes are generally almond-shaped,
and are set rather slanting in the head. It is rare and a great treat
to see bold, round, owl-like eyes in cream cats. These in colour
should be golden or hazel, the brighter the colour the better. I will
here give the points of cream or fawn cats, as drawn up by the
specialist society:—
CREAM OR FAWN.
_Colour._—To be as pure as possible without marking or shading,
either paler or darker, dulness and white to be particularly
avoided. All shades from the palest fawn to be allowable. 25.
_Coat._—To be very long and fluffy. 25.
_Size and shape._—To be large—not coarse, but massive, with plenty
of bone and substance; short legs. 20.
_Head._—To be round and broad, with short nose, ears small and well
opened. 15.
_Eyes._—To be large and full, and bright orange or hazel in colour.
5.
_Condition._—10.
[Illustration:
A CREAMY SMILE.
]
Much has been done by this energetic specialist society to get a
better classification for creams at our shows; and perhaps, as time
goes on and a larger number of fanciers take up these breeds, a
distinct classification will be given for creams and fawns. It may
always be a little difficult to draw the line between the two; but
such a division of colours would, I think, give satisfaction to the
breeders of both creams and fawns, for at present judges are more
inclined to give a preference to the palest-coloured cats, perhaps
because more beautiful and more difficult to breed.
In the former breeds, more especially blues and silvers, that I have
described in this work it would have been impossible to name all those
cats that were noted in the fancy, for the simple reason that their
name is legion; but it is different in a breed like creams, for, as I
mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, in times past it was a
case of only here and there a cream Persian appearing on the scene,
then vanishing perhaps to America, or else being purchased for a pet
and retiring from public life. These “sports” in the fancy were not
seriously taken up, and no one thought of trying to establish a
strain; so that one can, as it were, put one’s finger on the cats of
this variety, if not so easily in the present day, certainly in the
past.
The first recorded cream Persian in catalogues or stud books is “Cupid
Bassanio,” born in 1890, bred by Mrs. Kinchant; no pedigree is given.
He was a big, broadheaded, heavily coated cat, with a good many marks
and shadings, and was sold to Mrs. Preston Whyte, and passed on to
Miss Norman. In the same year Mrs. Kinchant exhibited cream kittens at
Brighton. “Ripon” was another well-known cream of imported parents (a
blue and an orange). This cat was purchased from Mrs. Foote by Lady
Marcus Beresford, and eventually disappeared when in the possession of
Miss Cockburn Dickinson. Mr. McLaren Morrison in 1893 owned a pale cat
called “Devonshire Cream.” In the following year Miss Taylor bred a
splendid specimen from “Tawny,” her noted tortoiseshell. This cat,
called “Fawn,” was an absolutely self-coloured fawn with brown eyes,
and would do some winning if alive now to compete in our up-to-date
classes for cream or fawn. It was in 1895 that Miss Beal first
exhibited some of her creams, upon which at that time she did not set
much store, more interested as she was in blues; but of her now
celebrated strain more anon.
[Illustration:
MRS. F. NORRIS’S CREAM KITTEN.
(_Photo: E. Landor, Ealing._)
]
One of the best known creams of late years is “Zoroaster,” bred by
Mrs. Bagster from her tortoiseshell “Pixie.” This was a remarkably
large pale cat with glorious eyes, but he was a good deal patched in
colour when I saw him at Mrs. Mackenzie Stewart’s cattery. Mrs.
Cartwright bred a well-shaped light cream, “Upwood Junket,” by
“Timkins,” a blue, and a daughter of “Cyrus the Elamite.” Mrs. Davies,
of Caterham, has often had creams in her possession, notably “Lord
Cremorne,” quite one of the palest seen in the show pen. Two noted
creams now placed at stud are Mrs. Norris’s “Kew Ronald” and Mrs.
Western’s “Matthew of the Durhams.” Both these cats are bred from Miss
Beal’s famous “Heavenly Twins.” Regarding “Matthew,” a reporter in
_Our Cats_ thus writes after the Botanic show of 1901:—“Creams are, we
prophesy, the coming cats. There seems to us great possibilities in
this variety. ‘Matthew of the Durhams’ is one of the cats we would
bring forward in support of this view. Eminently aristocratic,
breathing an air of refinement, this cat might be the petted darling
of a princess whose cats are all selected by a connoisseur.” Mr.
Western is justly proud of his purchase, for he claimed this fine cat
at the Sandy show, 1901, when he was exhibited by Mrs. D’Arcy
Hildyard. “Matthew” has on four separate occasions taken second to his
father “Admiral’s” first. He has sired some lovely creams, notably
“Wynnstay Myrtle,” also owned by Mrs. F. Western. This female is one
of the best of her breed, and is sure to have some influence over the
creams of the future. At the Crystal Palace show of 1902, where she
was awarded first and many specials, she was the admired of all
admirers. As a rule, cream females have been very much behind the
males in quantity and quality. Almost the first two were bred by Miss
Hester Cochrane from “Cyrus the Elamite” and “Brunette.” “Crême d’Or”
is quite one of the best, and was owned by Mrs. Wellbye, who sold her
to Mrs. Norris. This cat declined to enter into any matrimonial
alliance for some time, but at last presented her owner with a family
by “Darius,” Mrs. Ransome’s noted blue. Two of these cats, “Kew
Laddie” and “Kew Ronald,” are well known in their different spheres.
“Kew Laddie” I purchased to send out to Mrs. Clinton Locke, in
Chicago, and she presented him to the honorary secretary of the
Beresford Club, Miss Johnstone. This lady exhibited “Laddie” at the
big Chicago Cat Show, where he won high honours, and in a letter
received from Miss Johnstone I learn he is growing a grand fellow and,
in fact, is quite _la crême de la crême_ in catty society over the
water.
The picture of a perfect kitten on the opening page of this chapter
represents a cream female, “Jessica Kew,” bred by Mrs. Clinton Locke
from “Lockhaven Daffodil,” sired by Miss Johnstone’s “Laddie Kew.”
Mrs. Clinton Locke is justly proud of this lovely kitten, and writes:
“Jessica is the finest kitten I have ever seen; all her points are
perfect. She was five weeks old when this photo was taken. Her
grandfather was my ‘Victor,’ an orange, her great-grandmother a
tortoiseshell-and-white.”
[Illustration:
“KEW RONALD” AND “KEW LADDIE.”
(_Photo: E. Landor, Ealing._)
]
I have mentioned Mr. F. Norris as a breeder of creams and the owner of
the handsome pair of cats illustrated on this page. He has kindly
supplied me with the following notes:
“Cream cats are of a modern colour in Persians, but are now being more
freely bred and finding numerous supporters.
“There are, however, very few good ones in the fancy, for size and
colour are difficult to obtain. The great failing with them is that,
although they are called cream cats, the best and soundest coloured
ones are really of a fawn shade. So many show markings, patches, or
shadings, whereas the colour should be one shade and sound throughout;
better be a little dark in colour rather than shade from cream to
white, as is the case with so many specimens exhibited.
[Illustration:
MISS BEAL AND HER KITTENS.
]
“For one grand-headed and good-eyed cat you see a dozen snipy,
long-faced ones with curious slit eyes, instead of a short, snub head,
with glorious big round golden eyes.
“In my opinion, to get the short head, good eye, fine body shape, and
short legs, it is best to mate a cream with a good cobby blue. From my
experience nothing beats a blue, although you can mate them with a
red, tortoiseshell, or black. Mating two creams together I do not
advocate, unless one of them has a distinct out-cross in the first
generation to totally different blood.
“All the creams shown are descended from Miss Beal’s two brothers
‘Romaldkirk Admiral’ and ‘Romaldkirk Midshipmite,’ and to keep the
colour, breeders have bred in and into them again; and that is why
they have lost so much in type and character, which would have been
improved by using an out-cross.
“I have heard people say, ‘Cream females will not breed.’ If they only
studied the question a minute, they would know the reason well enough,
which is that they have been too much in-bred. If breeders will only
try the blue cross more, they will, I am sure, be pleased, and we
shall see a better cat being shown. Breeding from blue you will get
pure creams and some cream and blue mixed. Keep the blue and cream
females, and when old enough mate them to a cream, and you will get
some fine sound-coloured cream kits.
“It is very curious that there has been nothing yet bred in males to
beat the twin cats ‘Admiral’ and ‘Midshipmite.’
“In females the best I have seen is ‘Miriam of the Durhams,’ who has a
lovely body and coat, but is long in face and has those bad-shaped
eyes. ‘Crême d’Or’ runs her close, as she has such a good head, with
perfect eye, but is a wee bit long in the leg.”
Miss Beal’s females “Calliope” and “Mignonette” were both noted
prize-winning cream females. Mrs. D’Arcy Hildyard has been most
successful in her endeavours to breed creams from creams, and a letter
from her in _Our Cats_ of April, 1901, will be interesting to breeders
of this variety:—
[Illustration:
MRS. D’ARCY HILDYARD’S CREAM KITTENS.
(_Photo: E. Yeoman, Barnard Castle._)
]
BREEDING OF CREAMS.
SIR,—Being much interested in the breeding of creams, I should like
to say a few words on the subject and state my experience. Though
only a novice, I have up to date succeeded in breeding twenty
creams—two in 1899, thirteen in 1900, and seven this year. I began
by mating my mixed blue and cream queen “Senga” to a cream tom
“D’Arcy,” which I bought from Mr. Hutchinson, of Egglestone. From
this pair I got four kittens, all females—two cream and two marked
blues. I kept the creams “Josephine” and “Hazeline,” winners at
Westminster as kittens, first and second special and medal, 1900.
Later on in the year I mated them, “Hazeline” to Miss Beal’s
“Midshipmite,” “Josephine” to her “Admiral.” Both litters were
entirely cream, “Josephine” producing six kittens, “Hazeline”
producing five, two of which I have kept. “Matthew” and “Miriam of
the Durhams” both won as kittens at Manchester, and “Miriam” has
since taken first and specials at Barnard Castle, Westminster, and
Reading. “Matthew” is growing into a very handsome cat, and I hope
to exhibit him at the Botanic. On Saturday last, April 13th,
“Hazeline” again kittened and produced five creams, having again
been mated to “Midshipmite.” This I think distinctly proves that
good creams can be got from a pair of the same colour. On April 14th
“Senga” also presented me with two more creams, also two marked
blues, this time the result of a mating with Miss Beale’s
“Romaldkirk Toza.”
AGNES D’ARCY HILDYARD.
Mrs. Barton Collier has two good creams, “Bruin” and “Dolly of
Brough.” Again these cats are from Miss Beal’s strain, the male being
a fawn and the female quite one of the palest of creams.
Miss H. Cochran, who formerly took a great interest in this breed,
writes:—“I should be inclined to mate a pale cream male or female with
a white, and the progeny with an unmarked orange, or _vice versâ_. I
had a litter from ‘Buttercup’ and ‘Zoroaster,’ consisting of two
oranges, two fawns, and a cream. The fawn and creams were females, but
all died in their youth. I made other attempts with similar crosses,
as I had been told it was impossible to breed cream queens, and in the
first year all the creams were queens, and the males red! My idea was
to select a male of the required colour, and mate a queen of suitable
breeding with him, then to mate the resulting queens with their own
father. I believe this plan would have been a success if I had
followed it up. My idea is that the natural males are the fawns and
oranges, and that their complementary queens are the blue
tortoiseshells and the ordinary tortoiseshells. No harm is ever done
to a cream or orange strain by crossing with black, and it may do much
good to the latter by deepening the colour of the oranges, and
promoting patchiness as opposed to streakiness in the tortoiseshells.”
[Illustration:
“MIRIAM OF THE DURHAMS.”
(_Photo: E. Yeoman, Barnard Castle._)
]
I have made frequent mention of Miss Beal’s noted creams during my
chapters on orange and cream cats. These two celebrated champions are
commonly known in the fancy as the “Heavenly Twins,” their registered
names being “Romaldkirk Admiral” and “Romaldkirk Midshipmite.” They
are really fawn Persian cats, very sound in colour, well made, big
boned, and are always exhibited in the pink of condition, and at all
seasons of the year are in marvellous coat. Certainly, the cold
climate of the Romaldkirk cattery, which is situated 730 feet above
the sea level, must, anyhow, suit this variety of Persian cat. I
suppose the day will come when these welltried and well-seasoned
veterans will have to retire from public life and make way for some of
their already noted offspring. In the North, South, East, and West
these “Heavenly Twins” have reigned supreme, and Miss Beal must almost
have lost count of the number of prizes won by them, which, I think I
am safe in saying, would give an exact record of the number of times
exhibited. In response to my request, Miss Beal has sent me some notes
regarding her cattery arrangements. She says:—
[Illustration:
“CHAMPION ROMALDKIRK ADMIRAL.”
(_Photo: G. W. Vidals._)
]
“Most of the houses are old farm buildings round about our stable
yard, and I have recently utilised an old granary which is over the
coachhouse. This is about 40 feet long, and has a room at one end,
with five windows and good ventilation above. In addition I have three
big cat houses and a loft, where most of the queens reside. ‘Middy’
and ‘Admiral’ (the ‘Heavenly Twins’) have small wooden houses, felted
inside and out, with wired runs and concrete floors.
“I have the use of two laundries and a tool-house fitted with
fireplaces, and these I reserve in case of illness.”
There are no cats exhibited in better coat and condition than those
that come from the Romaldkirk cattery, and the Misses Beal may be
justly proud of their splendid specimens of creams, oranges,
tortoiseshells, and blue Persians. Miss W. Beal has kindly supplied me
with a short article on cream and fawn Persians:—
“The cream and fawn Persian was a few years ago looked upon as a
‘sport,’ and when cream kittens appeared in an orange strain they were
considered spoilt oranges, and were either given away, sold for a few
shillings, or in many cases destroyed as useless. Now, however, it is
very different; there is a growing demand for cats and kittens of this
colour, and at the big shows they usually have two classes, _i.e._
male and female, for them. They were certainly slow in coming into
general favour, owing, I think, to the following facts: First, that
the specimens formerly exhibited failed very noticeably in head, being
very narrow in face and long in nose; secondly, that cream females
were practically unknown; and, thirdly, that a show, where they are
generally seen, is emphatically the worst place to see cream Persians
to advantage, as the journey and being in a town, etc., takes off the
spotlessness of their coat and dulls their colour, and the dingy grey
of the pens and the yellow of the straw combine to spoil the effect of
their colour.
“The place, without doubt, to see creams to perfection is the country,
where against a background of vivid green lawn their pure, soft
colouring is indeed a thing of beauty, and rarely fails to command
admiration. The colour is rather difficult to describe, and there are
two distinct tones of colour bred, the one which is generally seen and
is so far most successful at shows being a cream rather deep in shade,
almost buff, with a distinct pink tinge about it, which is very
different from the washed-out orange or sandy colour some people
imagine it to be. The other tone of cream colour is much paler in
shade, but, instead of the pink, it inclines to a lemon tinge, and,
though paler, it is, as a rule, more ‘flaky’ and uneven than the
darker shades, and it is also very apt to fade into white underneath.
“Nearly all the best-known creams are bred in the first place from
orange and blue strains, though creams have appeared as freaks in many
colours—silvers, tabbies, etc.; but I believe the present strains
sprang from crossing blue and orange, and you can _generally_ rely on
getting some creams by crossing a tortoiseshell, cream, orange, or
blue tortoiseshell queen with a blue sire. But, so far, reversing the
mating, _i.e._ a blue queen with a cream or orange sire, is not
successful from the cream breeders’ point of view, though very good
from that of those breeders who want blues, as the kittens generally
excel in purity of colour. Cream females are now fairly common, and so
in a few years there ought to be a well-established strain of
cream-bred creams; but, as in all other breeding for colour, people
are apt to get surprises—for instance, one strain of cream females
mated to a cream sire invariably produces whole litters of creams,
while another strain, more cream-bred than the first named, mated to
the same sire produces equal numbers of creams and orange and creams.
If people wish to start breeding creams, and cannot afford a cream
female, it is a good plan to buy a well-bred nondescript coloured
female, either blue and cream, tabby, tortoiseshell, or anything that
has cream or orange about it, and if it is properly mated there are
nearly sure to be one or two creams: thus a cream strain can be
gradually built up.
“There are several things to be remembered in trying to breed good
creams. One point to be aimed at is to keep the colour as _level_ as
possible, whether it be of a dark or light shade, and to keep it pure,
not tinged with blue or dull. Among other faults to be bred out are
the light lip and chin, which are very common defects, and the long
head, which is still seen sometimes, though creams have improved
vastly in this respect in the last few years. Creams have been taken
up greatly in America as well as oranges, and there they seem to be
formidable rivals in popularity to the silvers, which have so far over
here outdone them in that respect.
“One great point in favour of creams is their hardiness, for they do
not possess the delicate constitutions which seem to belong to most of
the other very pale varieties of Persians. With other coloured
cats—blues, silvers, etc.—creams make a splendid contrast, and with
oranges add greatly to the effect of a group. They also cross well
with several colours—blue, black, tortoiseshell, etc.—for breeding;
and many breeders think the result of the growing fancy for these
colours, _i.e._ cream and orange—for, though so different, they are
hard to deal with separately—will be that they will be better catered
for at shows as to classes, and more extensively bred than they are at
present.”
[Illustration:
MRS. F. WESTERN’S “MATTHEW OF THE DURHAMS.”
(_Photo: E. Yeoman, Barnard Castle._)
]
[Illustration:
“TOPSY OF MEREVALE.”
THE PROPERTY OF MRS. BIGNELL.
(_Photo: O. Hardee, Chislehurst._)
]