The "Rolls Royce" of the cat world is the Silver Persian. Its look is timeless and very elegant. The Silver Persian has always been known as regal and exquisite in appearance. The elegant Golden Persian is a pretty close runner up to the Silver. To some, it is the most beautiful of all. A lot of Persian cat breeders learn it is more productive to specialize, and almost always, the top winners of each generation come from catteries that breed the silver and golden Persians.

Chinnie, silver Persian, born in 1882 in England is the earliest documentation of silvers. To date, no pictures of her have been found, however, historians have found one picture of her famous grandson, "Silver Lambkin." Today, we can trace back to Lambkin in some pedigrees. It is unfortunate that there was little record keeping in the early days, so there is not much in writing to tell us about those days. Of course as time went on, people started to pay more attention to record keeping.

Silver Persian History

The early records show other colors, often blues and tabbies, were used in the breeding of silvers. We can also find documentation of silvers appearing in the pedigrees of Persians of other colors. However, there is no record of when silvers were accepted by the Cat Fanciers' Association. It is reasonable to assume the silvers were among the original colors bred when the Cat Fanciers' Association was organized in 1906. The silvers were imported from England into the United States before 1906.

Golden Persian History

The golden color is recessive to silver. It has a shorter history in CFA than the Silver Persian. Before the golden color was accepted, odd colored kittens appeared occasionally in colorbreed silver litters. They were often referred to as brownies and placed as pets. The 1960s brought a new light to the golden color. A few breeders became interested and started working with them. There was a unique beauty of their golden coats in contrast with their green or blue-green eyes that attracted more and more dedicated breeders. Gradually, the golden Persians grew in popularity and were accepted by CFA in 1976.

In 1961, the Shaded Division consisted of chinchilla silvers, shaded silvers, and smokes. It was at this time when cameos were accepted and added to the division as well. The smokes were taken out of the Shaded Division and given their own division in 1965. Chinchilla goldens and shaded goldens were accepted by CFA in 1976 and added to the Shaded Division.

The years of 1995 and 1996 brought more changes. The cameos and shaded torties were placed in the Smoke Division. The division name was changed to the Shaded and Smoke Division. Silvers and goldens were in a division called the Silver and Golden division (not the Green-eyed division).

The early Persians of any color looked little like today's Persians. Selective breeding, silver breeders had almost eliminated tabby markings and leg bars by the mid-20th Century. This is when color breeding became an absolute must for Persian cat breeders, or else the breeders faced criticism. There was still no agreement, however, of how many generations were required for a silver to be considered a "colorbreed" cat.

Color breeding remained a necessity for many years to maintain the beautiful trademark coloring of the silver Persian. Since the gene pool was small, certain physical characteristics seemed to belong exclusively with the silver color. These characteristics were:

• The cats were generally lighter in bone
• And eventually smaller in size

As the years went on, and the Persian became more and more popular, additional colors and patterns were developed. This resulted in a larger gene pool. At the same time, the gene pool of the silvers remained the same. Interested breeders began to include other colors in their breeding programs. Fannie Mood of Delphi Cattery, a former CFA registrar, was one of the earliest who participated in this type of out crossing. Unfortunately, she was greatly criticized for breeding to a blue Persian.

Continued in Part 2

Source: The Cat Fancier Association Online

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