Pacific Cat Club - Challenge Cup (1914)

MUSEUM	FACTFILE
Classification	Awards
Category	Trophy
Artifact	Best Cat in Show Challenge Cup
Date	1914
Connection	Pacific Cat Club (San Francisco, USA)
Collection	The Harrison Weir Collection
Description	Three handled Silverplate Cup (approx. 11 inches high & wide)
Brief History	First Awarded in December 1914, to the Chinchilla Male 'ROB ROY', owned by Mrs H. S. Eckert.
Acquisition	Purchased by John Smithson, for The Harrison Weir Collection, 2016.

Photo Credit: Helmi Flick

The Pacific Cat Club was incorporated in July 1900 and held its first informal exhibition in August the same year, slowly growing from strength to strength.

This impressive and substantial trophy, both in size and weight, was first offered in competition at the December 1914 Show, where the officiating judge was the English born Miss Dorothy B. Champion, (originally from Surrey, in England), from her American home in Staten Island, New York.

Photo from Sunset Cat Journal, May 1909

On that occasion, the winner was Mrs. Eckert’s ‘Ch. Rob Roy of Claremont’, just one in a family chain of famous silvers all named ‘Rob Roy’ descended originally from ‘Eng. Ch. Rob Roy of Arrandale’, with his son ‘Ch. Rob Roy II of Arrandale’ (Imp.UK) being the sire of American ‘Ch. Rob Roy of Claremont.’

The below advertisement for that Show, appeared in the Western Cat Review.

The below cattery advertisement gives further details of the winner and his early show career.

Lastly, we have an image of the winning cat himself, taken from the CFA Studbook, Volume 3.