Siamese cats have existed for centuries in Thailand, formerly known as
Siam. The pointed cat known in the West as "Siamese" is one of several
breeds of cats from Siam described and illustrated in manuscripts
called "Tamra Maew" (Cat Poems) that are estimated to have been written
in the 1700s.
The breed was first seen outside their Asian home in 1884, when the British Consul-General in Bangkok, Edward Blencowe Gould, brought a breeding pair of the cats, Pho and Mia, back to Britain as a gift for his sister, Lilian Jane Veley (who went on to be co-founder of the Siamese Cat Club in 1901). Just one year later, three kittens were produced by Pho and Mia. These kittens--Duen Ngai, Kalohom, and Khromataand their parents were shown at the Crystal Palace Show in 1885, where they made a huge impression because of their unique appearance and distinct behavior. Unfortunately, all three of the kittens died soon after the show. The reason for their deaths is not documented.
The following year another pair with kittens were imported by a Forestier Walker and her sister, Mrs. Vyvyan. Compared to the British Shorthair and Persian cats that were familiar to most Britons, these Siamese imports were longer and less "cobby" in body; they had heads that were less round with wedge-shaped muzzles and had larger ears. These differences and the pointed coat pattern which had not been seen before by Westerners, produced a strong impression--one early viewer described them as "an unnatural nightmare of a cat". But these striking cats also won some devoted fans and over the next several years fanciers imported a small number of cats, which together these formed the base breeding pool for the entire breed in Britain. It is believed that most Siamese in Britain today are descended from about 11 of these original imports.
The original Siamese imports were, like their descendants in Thailand today, medium-sized, rather long-bodied, muscular, graceful cats with moderately wedge-shaped heads and ears that were comparatively large, but in proportion to the size of the head. The cats ranged from rather substantial to rather slender, but were not extreme in either way.
From the 1950s through the 1960s, as the Siamese was increasing in popularity, many breeders and cat show judges began to favor the more slender look and as a result of generations of selective breeding, created increasingly long, fine-boned, narrow-headed cats. Eventually the modern show Siamese was bred to be extremely elongated, with thin, tubular bodies, long, slender legs, a whip-thin tail and long, narrow, wedge-shaped heads topped by extremely large, wide-set ears. The major cat organisations altered language and/or interpretation of their official breed standards to favor this newer streamlined type of Siamese, and the minority of breeders who stayed with the original style found that their cats were no longer competitive in the show ring.
By the mid-1980s, cats of the original style had disappeared from cat shows, but a few breeders, particularly in the United Kingdom, continued to breed and register them, resulting in today's two types of Siamese--the modern "show-style" Siamese, and the "traditional" Siamese--both descended from the same distant ancestors, but with few, or no recent ancestors in common. In the late 1980s, breeders and fans of the older style of Siamese organised in order to preserve old, genetically healthy lines from extinction, educate the public about the breed's history and provide information on where people could buy kittens of the more moderate type. Several different breeders' organisations have developed, with differing breed standards and requirements (such as whether or not cats must have documented proof of ancestry from an internationally recognised registry). Partially due to such disagreements, there are several different names used for the cats, including "Traditional Siamese", "Old Style Siamese", "Classic Siamese" and "Appleheads", originally a derogatory nickname coined by modern-type Siamese breeders as an exaggerated description of less extremely wedge-shaped heads. The popularity of the older body style has also led to pointed, mixed-breed cats that may have few, or no Siamese ancestors being sold as "Traditional Siamese" to uninformed buyers, further increasing confusion over what a "real" Siamese looks like.
The International Cat Association (TICA) now accepts a breed--in addition to the regular Siamese (Siamkatze) breed category in which modern show-style Siamese are shown--in the Preliminary New Breed Category called Thai, similar to the Thaikatze which are seen in Europe. The TICA Thai includes Siamese cats of the less extreme type or a Wichien-Maat imported from Thailand. Thai, are the original type of cats from Thailand, brought to America on January 3, 1879 as a gift from the American consul in Bangkok to the President Rutherford B. Hayes' wife, Mrs. Lucy Webb Hayes, and are still bred and seen in Thailand today.