Description in progress ...

History

In the 1890's the self-brown cats were called Swiss Mountan Cats in England:

	The Book of the Cat, Frances Simpson, 1903, page 234 A.O.C. ... Any Other Colour As you can read here, Mrs. Davies' Sin Li was a chocolate-brown cat and was shown as A.O.V.
	page 218 Frances Simpson writes here that she bought a bright sable coloured cat, called Molly, about 1894.

Unfortunately, these brown cats dissappeard and had a revival again after World War II. One reason for their dissapearance might have been the advise from the Siamese Cat Club of Britain given in 1920:  "The club much regrets it is unable to encourage the breeding of any but blue-eyed Siamese." That means that all self-coloured cats with non-blue eyes were excluded from the Siamese classes.

In the early 1950's, a group of English breeders began to systematically breed for a self brown cat. This group of pioneers consisted of:

These dedicated English breeders studied available genetic information and kept detailed records of their experiments. It is believed that the first chestnut brown kitten, a male, Praha Gypka, produced by this group was the result from a mating between a black shorthair and a chocolate point Siamese.

During 1952 Mrs. Isobel Munro-Smith, who tried to produce a black pointed Siamese by breeding Seal Point Siamese with black shorthaired cats, contacted the Siamese Cat Club with the following:
"The father of these Seal-Points is Tombee who has had some nice litters, amongst them some chocolate points. Tombee and Susannah (the black shorthair) have produced the greatest thrill for all of us because, along with three blacks, they had a beautiful little brown kitten.  It is male, Siamese in shape, with a long tail and nicely shaped ears."
This little brown male was
Elmtower Bronze Idol
29 (GCCF colour code for chocolate, for the Havana)
DOB 14-05-1952
the first registered Havana.

English breeders used also chocolate point Siamese and a few Russian Blue * for breeding the Havana.
In 1958 the GCCF granted full recognition to the variety and designating it Breed No 29. The GCCF however did not accept the requested name of 'Havana', and instead it called the breed Chestnut Brown Foreign, because the name 'Havana' would have connotations of the fur trade due to the existence of the Rabbit of the same name. In 1970 the GCCF renamed the Breed No 29 to HAVANA.

By 1970 'The 'Foreign Lavender Group' had been formed in the GCCF under the chairmanship of Mrs Angela Sayer to foster the development of the lavender/lilac counterpart of the Havana. In June 1977 the Foreign Lilac was granted championship status by the GCCF.
The first Foreign Lilac, which gained title in early 1978, was CH Burdach Cartagena, female, born 09-05-1976, owned and bred by Mrs Val Gane.
From the beginning of 1970 it is difficult to make a clear difference in the development between the Havana and Foreign Lilac in England, because these two varieties were very often bred in parallel.
Today the Havana and Foreign Lilac are no longer a separate breed in GCCF, they are a colour variety in the Oriental Shorthairs.

In 1956, the very first Havana Brown, the female, Roofspringer Mahogany, was imported into North America from England by Mrs. Elsie Quinn (Quinn cattery) of Southern California. Some time later, Mrs. Jasmine Peters, also of Southern California, imported the male, Laurentide Brown Pilgrim.

The early imports were initially registered and shown in the United Cat Federation (UCF), which was later renamed into CFF. Thus CFA's first Havana Brown Standard was largely based on UCF's Standard. Mrs. Quinn, Mrs. Peters, and Mrs. Mabel Smith collaborated with other Havana Brown breeders and developed the wording of the original CFA Standard.
CFA recognized the Havana Brown for registration in 1959. The breed was granted CFA championship status on July 1, 1964.
 

Quinn's Brown Satin of Sidlo was the first Havana Brown Grand CH. in America. North American Havana Browns can trace their origin back to this cat.

Some American breeders out-crossed their Havana Browns to Siamese and/or to Russian Blues. In 1974 the CFA closed the Havana registry for outcrosses. In 1998 the CFA re-opened the Havana Brown registry for offspring of crosses with unregistered black or blue Domestic Shorthairs and certain colors of Oriental Shorthairs, attempting to broaden the rather limited gene pool. In 1999 the American registry was further opened to the offspring of Havana Browns and seal point or chocolate point Siamese.

(1) Picture taken from:
The Observer's Book of Cats (Observer's Pocket), Grace Pond, Publisher: Frederick Warne / Observer, 3rd Revised edition, July 13, 1979
ISBN-10: 0723215944, ISBN-13: 978-0723215943

* Hold in mind:
At that time blue shorthaired cats were mostly registered as Russian Blue with breed code 16a.
And black shorthaired cats were registered as British Black (shorthaired) with breed code 15 .

(*) Briarry Sacharrin is also spelled as Briarry Saccharin in the literature and in pedigree databases.

Temperament

Grooming

Havana require little grooming. Rubbing their coat with chamois skins will remove dead hears and will produce a silk-like glistening coat.