The Thai is
elegant, supple, muscular and slender. The cats looks foreign in its
appearance, but not oriental.
The Thai is very harmonic, without any extreme features, it shall
resemble and preserve the Siamese type of ancient Thailand and shall
not resemble the western modern Siamese type.The body is slightly
elongated, very muscular, but neither cobby nor long. The legs are
of medium length, slender with oval paws, that the legs suit the
foreign impression. The bone structure is of medium strength.
The tail is as long as the body and slightly tapering towards the
tip. The head forms a wedge, it is medium broad, but longer than
broad and tapers towards the muzzle, with rounded cheeks. The muzzle
is medium long to long and rounded, it may show a slight pinch
towards the cheek bones.
The ears are medium sized to large, placed wide apart, the slightly
rounded tips point slightly outwards.
The eyes are medium sized to large, but not oriental in shape, they
are fully almond-shaped and set slightly slanted towards the base of
the ears. The eye colour is intense blue.
The neck is of medium length, but not thick. The coat is short,
close lying, but not so sleek lying like in the Siamese. The
texture is silky, the coat has very little undercoat. The
characteristic feature of the Thai are the points:
the body is almost white, only the ears, the face (mask), the legs
and paws and the tail are coloured. |
History
It is supposed that the origine of the Thai is in Thailand - like
that of the Siamese.
Die Geschichte der Thai ist eng mit der Geschichte der Siam "altenTyps"
verbunden. "The Cat Book of Poems" (Tamra Maew, written between 1350 - 1765) describes
sealpoint Thai with pale coat, having black tails, feet and ears with
white hair and blue eyes.
 |
The 8th cat Wi-Chi-An-Maad (Diamant) or Wichien Maas (moon
diamond) - Siam, Thai. |
| Smud Khoi of Cats (also written as Smut Khoi ),
a copy of the script Tamra Maew,
which was written by a monk, named Somdej Phra Buddhacharn
Buddhasarmahathera between 1868-1910. |
Picture with the friendly permission
of Henk Keers,
Siau Tsj'oe cattery, Netherlands.
After a manuscript in the ownership of Debbie Howard |
| Siamese and Thai claim the same source. |
In 1884, the departing British Consul Edward Blencowe Gould
(1847–1916) was given a
pair of Siamese cats, named Pho and Mia - it is said by the Siamese king, which he brought to England
as a gift for his sister Lilian Jane Veley. In 1885 the two cats of
Mrs. Veley, Pho and Mia, produced three Siamese kittens, named Duen
Ngai, Kalohom, and Khromata, which were exhibited together in 1885
in the famous Crystal Palace Show in London.
Siamese-Thai-kittens: Duen Ngai, Kalohom, and Khromata Mrs. Vyvyan,
from Dover, writes to Harrison Weir:
"The original pair were sent from Bangkok, and it is believed that
they came from the King's Palace, where alone the breed are said to
be kept pure. At any rate they were procured as a great favour,
after much delay and great difficulty, and since that time no others
have been attainable by the same person. We were in China when they
reached us, and the following year, 1886, we brought the father,
mother, and a pair of kittens to England." The early Siamese of England and America resemble very little the modern
type of today's Siamese. Those Siamese had a shorter body, round eyes and a
round head, and were called 'apple head'. See the
Siamese breed standard by Harrison
Weir of 1892.
"I take it, therefore, that the true breed, by consensus of opinion,
is that of the dun, fawn, or ash-coloured ground, with black points.
Other colours should be shown in the variety classes.
The head should be long from the ears to the eyes, and not over
broad, and then rather sharply taper off towards the muzzle, the
forehead flat, and receding, the eyes somewhat aslant downwards
towards the nose, and the eyes of a pearly, yet bright blue colour,
the ears usual size and black, with little or no hair on the inside,
with black muzzle, and round the eyes black.
The form should be slight, graceful, and delicately made, body long,
tail rather short and thin, and the legs somewhat short, slender,
and the feet oval, not so round as the ordinary English cat.
The body should be one bright, uniform, even colour, not clouded,
either rich fawn, dun, or ash. The legs, feet, and tail black. The
back slightly darker is allowable, if of a rich colour, and the
colour softened, not clouded." "The Book of the Cat" of 1903,
written by Frances Simpson, includes contributions from several
breeders of Siamese cats, acknowledging that also blue, black, white
and tabby existed in Siam, but states that only the "Royal Siamese"
and "Chocolate Siamese" were recognized in England at that time.
Illustration: The Book of the Cat, 1903
Source: see Literature There was also the opinion that there were
two types of Siamese.
Mrs. Carew Cox, a cat judge and pioneer of the Siamese, writes -
cited from Mrs. Simpson's book of 1903:
"There appear to be two distinct types - the compactly built, short
in body, short on legs, and round in head; and the long-bodied,
long-faced, lithe, sinuous, and peculiarly foreign-looking variety."
Mrs. Robinson, a Siamese breeder and cat judge, writes in the book
of Mrs Simpson:
"Of the royals there seem to be two types in England: the one -
rather a small, longheaded cat, with glossy, close-lying coat and
deep blue eyes, and with a decided tendency to darken with age - is
generally the imported cat or having imported parents; the other is
a larger cat, with a rounder head, a much thicker, longer, and less
close-lying coat, and the eyes a paler blue (these cats do not
darken as much or as soon as the other type, and have generally been
bred for several generations in England)."
"Tiam O'Shian is another Siamese of high repute, the
property of Mrs. Vyvyan, who bred him ; but Tiam resides with Mrs.
Parker Brough whilst his owner is abroad. He is a magnificent type
of Siamese, even in colour, with deep seal] points."
Source: see Literature During the early 1960s, the
"robust" Siamese lost out to the longer thinner type, and by 1986
the old-style Siamese had vanished from the shows.
In the 1960s a large amount of
Siamese could be admired on American exhibitions, 50 up to 60 cats were
quite usual. This started to change in the 1980s, and today already a class
of 10 Siamese is considered as a large class.
The today's modern type of Siamese has departed far away from the
original classic Siamese type since that time. One cannot find any
imported cats from Thailand in the pedigrees of the modern Siamese.
This might be traced back to several changes of the standard, the
development of the Siamese breeding done by the breeders and the
judges.
In
1966 a new preface to CFA's standard was written, in which breeding
Siamese was compared how nature had modelled the Cheetah. Breeders
were enforced that they would create a new piece of art like an
artist. This preface of 1966 favoured the more extreme type of
Siamese.
Breeders and exhibitors of the traditional Siamese type faced
various choices:
to refrain from breeding completely, because their cats could not be
successful in exhibitions any more,
to change to the new Siamese type,
or to continue breeding the traditional Siamese silently and little
known.
Around 1986 the traditional Siamese could not be seen in exhibitions
any longer.
But, fortunately, there existed still some breeders, who continued
to import the traditional Siamese from Thailand and to breed the
traditional type. One can find many imported cats from Thailand,
where the Siamese still looks the same and remained preserved the
same type like at 1900, in the pedigrees of the Thai cat. Very soon
the breeders had to recognize that they would gain little success
for recognition, if they continued naming their cats Siamese. Thus
the traditional Siamese type was renamed to Thai cat.
In
2006 the Thai cat was recognized for registration by TICA, but
without titles. Since May 1, 2010 the Thai is recognized by TICA
also for championship. |
