Only recently has the show style begun to favour ears placed horizontally, a change that is only part of a general alteration in look that has completely altered the appearance of the Siamese in the show world in the USA. The UK standard requires 'good width between the ears': originally this meant a broad skull, but with the narrowing of the skull the only way to gain width between the ears is to push them lower on the head. The eyes are now slitted rather than almond-shaped, with the haws sometimes covering part of the eye. The body has become long and thin and the tail extremely whippy. Most noticeable is that the size of the ears in proportion to the skull has changed dramatically. Everyone has a different idea of beauty in their cats (look at the difference between the Persian and the show Siamese, each considered the ultimate in feline beauty by their owners): there is no wrong or right.
Colours
Although the four base colours, Seal,
Blue, Chocolate and Lilac are considered the true old
colours of the Siamese, the red point was actually
recognised and known long before the Lilac was accepted in
the 1960s. The 'style' of a cat is a matter of type (i.e.
body and head shape and definition) not colour, so you can
get Siamese of all types in all the colours available.
The best way to judge a Siamese is to keep in mind the
standard, but also to look at cats who were considered the
most beautiful Siamese of their day by the top breeders and
judges of the time, since they obviously met that standard.
Here you can see two such cats: Inwood Shadow was widely
considered to be the most beautiful Siamese ever bred, and
Clonlost Yo Yo is probably the most famous stud from the
1950s, appearing in almost all Siamese lines. The gentle
but aristocratic look of these cats was the model for the
two kittens opposite them, who were born in 2002. This look
was easily achieved, without the need to outcross to other
breeds, or even to select heavily for type.
The picture below shows two Siamese
imported in the early 1930s directly from Thailand (then
Siam). As you can see they are not round- or
'apple'-headed, and are very similar in appearance to the
cats above. This is the original look of the Siamese and is
what many breeders of Siamese in the UK aim for, though
there is a range of type to be found. However, all avoid
the excessive type that has led to health problems in
extreme show type Siamese in the USA, where in a few cases
kittens were born with heads so narrow that their eyes were
on the sides of the head. Since their brains weren't
adapted to see in two directions at once, these cats could
not survive. All OSSC breeders are encouraged to breed for
health and temperament first, and worry about type later:
an obsession with type has led to the perpetuation of
serious genetic defects in many breeds, because those with
show-winning type are used for breeding when they are not
producing healthy offspring.
Among breeders who do not show, the
pressure to breed for type has always been subordinate to
breeding for health. Even so, some unscrupulous breeders
are using the current anxiety of some people about losing
the less showy look in Siamese to charge inflated prices
and breed a cobbier cat to the detriment of their health,
claiming that the cats are rare or difficult to breed, and
sometimes outcrossing to other breeds, so the resulting
cats are not true Siamese. Siamese breeding by non-show
breeders in the UK has never gone away: it's still out
there in the homes of over 100 breeders nationwide, many of
them people who also show their cats. Siamese like those
above are not rare; they shouldn't be more expensive than
any other pedigree cat; and it doesn't require any special
skill to breed them. The old-style Siamese club was founded
to put those seeking kittens in touch with breeders, and we
succeed in this every day.
Applehead
Siamese
There have never been appleheads in
Britain. The applehead is something invented in America, in
many cases originally by outcrossing to other breeds such
as the British or American Shorthair. If you want a cat
that looks like this you should look for a colourpoint
British Shorthair. The applehead has a completely rounded
head with a short nose that has in many cases has gone as
far from the original imported Siamese as the modern show
cat, just in the opposite direction. Originally the term
was used in the USA as a criticism, but many breeders took
it up for their type of cats, and the breed now has its own
standard. None of the earliest pictures of the Siamese show
appleheads, though some of the cats were cobbier than
today's cats. A very few early pictures of Siamese from the
late 1800s show a round-headed cat, but actually this is
simply a male cat with a narrower head who has developed
heavy jowls -- some present-day studs look like this. These
very cobby cats were also not Siamese as we know them: they
were 'hybrids' of the existing types of cats in Thailand
corresponding most closely to the modern-day Tonkinese.
I've been told I would
have to import to get the look of cat I want...
That's not necessary. Nearly all of the
European-bred old-style Siamese, called 'Thai Siamese' are
not actually pure Siamese. Few of them can provide more
than a 3-generation pedigree without coming to 'parents
unknown' . This is because most of the first European
breeders to try to breed old-style Siamese outcrossed to
non-oriental breeds to obtain the cobbier look. The
standard for 'Thai Siamese' specifies paler blue eyes than
the original deep blue, and a somewhat fluffy coat.
Outcrossing is unnecessary, it just takes patience in
breeding to get the look you want, and many breeders in the
UK have already achieved it or have never lost it in the
first place. ALL UK-bred Siamese are pure Siamese and can
be traced back to the earliest imports in the late 1800s.
None have outcrossed to breeds like the British Shorthair,
or they would not be registered as Siamese by the Governing
Council. Although many show Siamese have Orientals in their
pedigrees (an outcross allowed by the GCCF, although they
are registered with a 'CSSR' prefix to their registration
number until the orientals are so far back in the pedigree
as to be insignificant in the gene mix, when the prefix
returns to 'CS'), almost none of the old-style lines have
outcrossed in this way. Old-style Siamese are still
registered as pure-bred Siamese in the UK, and there is no
question of registering them as a different breed since
they descend in an unbroken line of Siamese cats. There are
over 130 breeders on the OSSC list who can help you to find
a cat who looks the way you want. Here are some pictures of
cats bred within the last five years, all still living,
several breeding beautiful kittens:
You can find out more about the early Siamese in many club facsimile publications. The history of the Siamese Standard of Points is laid out with illustrations in another club publication.