BREED HISTORY Havana - THE BEGINNINGS

ELMTOWER BRONZE IDOL

During 1952 Mrs Isobel Munro-Smith, who was attempting to produce a truly 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 kitten born on 14 May 1952 was registered as Elmtower Bronze Idol and is the first acknowledged Havana cat, although produced incidentally rather than deliberately!

Elmtower Bronze Idol was mated at least 22 times during 1954 - 55 and amongst the matings, in 1955, was Roofspringer Marsala - a black shorthair belonging to Edit von Ullmann, who was planning a breeding programme to produce self-brown 'siamese' type cats, in other words Havanas.  The progeny from Elmtower Bronze Idol x Roofspringer Marsala was a male Havana (29) - Roofspringer Muscatel d.o.b. 27 July 1955.  In the next year Edit von Ullmann mated Roofspringer Muscatel to Roofspringer Periwinkle (29), also a grandchild of Elmtower Bronze Idol.  A brown female kitten Roofspringer Mahogany was born on 1 July 1956. A little later Roofspringer Mahogany was exported to America to Mrs Elsie Quinn of Quinn Cattery.

Roofspringer Mahogany was mated to another imported self brown - Laurentide Brown Pilgrim dob 12 April 1956, bred in England by Mrs Elsie Hargreaves (Elmtower Bronze Idol was Brown Pilgrim's grandsire on the dam's side).  The kitten produced from L.Brown Pilgrim x R. Mahogany was Quinn's Brown Satin of Sidlo, the first Havana Brown to achieve GR CH status in America and all North American Havana Browns can trace their heritage to this cat.

Some of this information has been taken from:-

• "Cats - A Guide to Breeding and Showing" (Angela Sayer, published Batsford 1983)
• CFA Breed Article: "The Havana Brown: A Brown Delight and an Endangered Species" (Richard C. Bilello c1997)
• Photograph of Elmtower Bronze Idol from 'The Observers Book of Cats' Warne 1959
• Too many other sources to list!