Siamese Cat History:
Quite the Detective Story, Holmes!

Siamese cat history shows us our lovely cats are no different from many of us humans: scratch the surface, go back a few generations and we find that most of us have little known ‘pedigree’ in the true sense of the word. (A cat with a pedigree has a guaranteed and recorded breeding history with selected pedigree mates over several generations and usually officially recorded by an approved breeding register.)

Like human genealogy, the cat history of the Siamese has relied on assumptions, and facts that get less reliable the further back we trace the family tree.

Just like humans, cat breeders have been known to have a few skeletons in the cupboard too!

Well back to Siamese cat history: so where did that aristocratic, special Siamese come from, that lithe and sinuous cat with the dark ears, face, tail and paws?

Well how far would you like to go back? Pop over to the domestic cat history page to see how your Siamese cat fits into the long history of the domestic cat.

If you are interested in the smaller wild cats, some close relatives of the Siamese can be discovered here.

Finally, we have the wild cat hybrids and one of them has even used a Siamese cat for half of the cross! There has been quite a bit of controversy about wild cats and the ethics of breeding wild hybrids, but not everyone agrees, so you might still be able to get that spotted Siamese style wild hybrid.

For more details on how scientists classify the cat family, take a look at the origin of the scientific name for cat types.

According to the accepted history of Siamese cats, Thailand was the home of the Siamese cat. Even today you see street cats with the look and colours of the Siamese.

Until 1939 Thailand was called Siam, and according to cat history Siamese cats first arrived with their Siam-derived name and local folklore (to explain the kinked tails and squinty eyes) around the 1870s or 1880s in the UK and US.

Don’t forget that by selective breeding we have altered the look of the original imports over a short period. The picture we see nowadays as the essence of the Siamese is different from the more chunky Thai originals, whether royal, temple or street urchin. However some dedicated breeders are reviving a Siamese variety that is much closer to the first Siamese cat imports.

Interestingly, Siamese cats have been used in breeding, although not as much as other cats perhaps. The earliest we can trace wild cat hybrids is from a 19th century cat show, but of course domestic cat history goes much further back, not just to Egypt, as initially thought, but much further back. And at least two wild cats are relatively closely related to Siamese cats.

According to Siamese cat history, we have proof that Siamese cats were in Ayudha (Siam’s capital city) a long time ago. The city was founded in 1350 and destroyed in 1767 by the Burmese (not the cats!). An old manuscript called the Cat Book Poems (Tamra Maew) was probably rescued from the sacked city. A more recent copy is now kept in the Minor Arts Room of Bangkok’s National Museum. Within the pages of this document are illustrations of plenty of cats: Burmese and Korat types, black and white bi-coloured with prominent splodges of black on a white background, and of course our lovely Siamese.

The book tells us that there several types of cats, just as we would find in a typical feral community. Aristocratic can be used to describe the Siamese cat origin since they were bred and raised in royal and temple households. Rumour has it that they were not for lesser classes, although some writers question the assumption that the royals actively bred them. Siamese cat history gets a little murky.

However this patina of exclusivity followed them into England when the British Consul General in Bangkok, Edward Gould, brought back a pair of Siamese cats in 1884 and gave them to his sister. The Siamese breed had however arrived a little earlier, with records dating back to around 1870.

And that's the history of Siamese cats!

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