MAIDA (1896)


HISTORICAL BACKGROUND | PARENTAGE & OWNERSHIP | SIBLINGS & SHOWS | BREEDING & PROGENY
PHOTOS | SOCIAL MEDIA | REFERENCES

Fur and Feather; Cropped Book Plate from Cats: Show and Pet (1903) by C.A.House. 1 Courtesy of The Harrison Weir Collection

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:

The owner of 'Maida', Miss A. Eggetts, ran a small cattery devoted largely to show neuters, but she also bred a few Blues, some Silvers, Smokes and Brown Tabbies. Her 'Broughton' prefix, like many English cattery names, came directly from her address, which was in the suburb of Higher Broughton, in central Manchester.

Fortunately, we have to hand, some snippets from a report by a correspondent of Our Cats magazine, who visited Miss Eggetts, and published the following commentaries in February 1903, about the same time as Mr. C.A.House published his book, CATS: Show and Pet, which featured a full page photo of 'Maida'.

"For many years now, Miss Eggett has given a corner in a very large heart, and more than a corner in a very large house, to some beautiful Persian cats. Living in the centre of Manchester for very obvious reasons, Miss Eggett has chiefly confined her attention to neuters (which M.r Louis Wain, rightly believes have a future before them, as town pets). She has, however, two breeding queens, one of whom, the beautiful blue, Maida, is well known to most of our readers, through her photograph. Maida is a very typical Persian, and has a pure colour, in addition to a lovely shape and head. She comes of famous stock, being by Ch. Blue Jacket ex Bijou. Her only fault is the too common one, of a pale eye. On the occasion of our visit she was not looking her smartest, being still engaged in superintending the health and morals of a fine pair of kittens, sired by Whooshoo. Wonderfully long in the coat, with good colour and bold heads, they looked as though they should have a future before them."2

"Maida and her babies had a room to themselves, and on the next floor we paid our respects to 'Sweet Phyllis' the proud mother of two tiny kits by the redoubtable Ch. Ranji, who were not yet a week old. One of the mites, gave promise of turning out a first-class smoke; the other appeared to take more after the mother, who is a shaded silver, (or silver tabby)."2

"On the morning of our visit, Phyllis had had the floor of her nursery washed, and meanwhile she and her basket of babies, had been moved into the adjacent room,Miss Eggett's own bedroom. Phyllis, not satisfied with her lowly position on the floor, was found with both her babies, not only upon her mistress' bed, but actually under the duvet!"

PARENTAGE & OWNERSHIP:

'Maida' was born on 30th March, 1896, She bred by Mrs Finnie Young and sired by her 'Blue Jacket' (1894)(NCC : 2009)and out of 'Bijou' (1894), who judging by other stud book entries ,had proven herself to be an excellent brood queen for Mrs Young. 'Maida' was subsequently sold to Miss Eggett.

        Eng Ch Blue Ruin I, Blue
    Blue Jacket, NCC 2009,  Blue 
    |   Sylvia, Blue
Maida, Mar-30-1896, Blue, F
    |   Ch Bundle, Blue
    Bijou, Blue
        Moth, Blue

SIBLINGS & SHOWS:

'Maida's most famous relatives would appear to be her own 'sire-sibling', the blue-eyed white 'Crystal'(1898) and both her sire 'Ch. Blue Jacket' and his older full sibling, 'Ch. Patrick Blue'.

Four full older siblings are recorded in a single litter bred by Mrs. Young, on 26th August, 1895. This litter comprised of three blue females and one blue male. Of the three females,'Dolce of Rhinsdale' and 'Beauty of Rhinsdale' appear to have been retained for breeding by Mrs. Young, with 'Beauty' being shown for a 2nd at Hamilton in 1895. The third female, 'Bon-Bon of Rhinsdale' appears to have been sold for breeding and changed hands, as there are litters recorded from her, bred by both Mrs. Foulds, and Mrs. Oliver. The fourth kitten, a male, was 'The Shah of Rhinsdale' who appears to have been registered as a neuter.

One other full sibling 'Tot of the Downs', a blue female so named because she went to Mrs. Herbert Ransome, at The Downs, Altrincham, is recorded as being born in 1896, so it seems extremely likely that she was 'Maida's litter sister.

As noted above, her most famous sire sibling, would undoubtedly have been the blue-eyed white 'Crystal' bred by Mr. A.Gearn and owned by Miss Hunt. Mr. Gearn produced another White female 'Aisha' from a repeat breeding of 'Ch. Blue Jacket' to his 'Lily White' and this female was purchased by Miss R.A. Packham. Aisha's eye colour is not recorded.

Another sire-sibling was the blue female, 'Ayrshire Bluebell', bred by Mrs. Young from her queen 'Stella', and sold to Mrs. MacKenzie-Stewart. Bluebell subsequently appears on a number of later pedigrees.

We do not have definitive wins for 'Maida' but the caption to her photo in Mr C.A.House's early book, CATS: Show and Pet (1903) simply states: "Miss A.Eggetts Blue Queen, Maida - winner of several prizes.1

Above left: Sire-sibling to 'Maida', the famous blue-eyed White 'Crystal'.3
Above right: Miss Eggett's home-bred Sable Tabby Neuter 'Broughton Bobs' 2
Images courtesy of The Harrison Weir Collection

BREEDING & PROGENY:

Apart from the litter of kittens alluded to in the article quoted in our introduction, there are no identifiable records of the progeny of 'Maida' other than a reference to her blue neuter son by Nankipoo, in the following narrative from the same article:

"Miss Eggett exhibited three of her neuters at the last Northern Counties Show, and took a prize with each! The prefix Broughton belongs to this cattery, so we will take it as said in future. Don is a very beautiful sound blue, by Nankipoo ex Maida. Bobs and Charlie, litter brothers, by Silver Laddie ex Broughton Phyllis, are as dissimilar as brothers often are. Bobs, whose photo, we reproduce,is a very richly coloured brown tabby, whilst Charlie is a sound smoke. Both were in excellent coat."

PHOTOS:

Miss A Eggett's Blue Queen, 'Maida', winner of several prizes.
Photo: Fur and Feather, from CATS: Show and Pet (1903) by C.A.House.1
Courtesy of The Harrison Weir Collection

SOCIAL MEDIA :

Miss Eggett's outdoor cattery, (or recreation ground), in Higher Broughton, Manchester.2
Photo: 'Our Cats' February 21, 1903; courtesy of The Harrison Weir Collection

REFERENCES:

  1. Cats: Show and Pet by C.A.House, 1903
  2. Our Cats, February 21, 1903
  3. Rotary Real Photograph Series Postcard circa 1903
  4. Photos and Quotations as per credits noted.

Registers associated with this article include The Incorporated Cat Fanciers Association of Great Britain (TICFAGB), National Cat Club (NCC), The Cat Club (CCR), Beresford Cat Club (BCC), Feline Federation Francaise (FFF), Siamese Cat Registry (SCR), US Register & Studbook for Cats (USR)including Supplement(USRS), The Studbook of the American Cat Association (ACA), and the Studbook & Register of the Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA).

 


Home | Cats | Gallery | Clubs | People | Artifacts | Articles | Updates | Contact Us

©The CFA Foundation, Inc and The Harrison Weir Collection
This project is a collaboration between The CFA Foundation, Inc. and The Harrison Weir Collection.
All material on this site is copyrighted and may not be printed or reproduced, in any form, without the express written consent of the collaborators.