When Inca became an adult she was bred to a Sealpoint male. The litter consisted of only one Redpoint male "Thotmose". Unfortunately he died young as a consequence of a respiratory condition. She mated Inca again, but now to the Sealpoint Moxie. This litter contained 6 kittens, including Ramses and Chinki Joe, a Red Tabbypoint male. Where the designation Tabby comes from is not entirely clear. Perhaps the sire was a Tabby, or they simply did not know that phenotypically all red cats show the Tabby pattern and therefore they mistook him for a Tabby! The same litter contained T’an Tze, a Sealpoint female which made it to Best Siamese Kitten at a show in Chicago. It is not clear whether Alice DiFilippo had made such progress with the type in the third generation, or whether the competition simply wasn’t there. In any case, this must have been a real boost for her. Thotmose more or less laid the basis of her breeding programme. He was bred to his grandmother Bonnie Blue Eyes. This gave Alice two Tortie females, Oona and Ifrengie. This last cat was mated to Chinki Joe, the Red Tabby hybrid son of Moxie and Inca. This produced Sundust Isis, the first Redpoint female of which the progeny could be registered with the American Cat Association. Chinki Joe was also the sire of Sundust Tutankhamen, whose dam Shan Wan was a pure Sealpoint.(See tree 2)

The mating between Tutankhamen and Isis resulted in the first full Sundust Redpoint litter in the USA. The Redpoint was a fact! One of the kittens from this litter born on February 18 1952 was Sundust Amen Hotep. He was registered under number ACF 278-0016-PR. PR means Primary Record, which means so much as proof of ancestry. PR also meant that the breed was not recognised and therefore did not have championship status as described in the show standard. As a matter of fact Amen Hotep’s registration was special, because the CFA Studbook V92 says literally that cats can only be registered if they descend from at least 3 generations of pure-bred cats. In that same studbook we find Amen Hotep as the sire of a Redpoint bred by Virginia Daly (Dalai cattery). There is another Dalai Redpoint in the studbook, but with a non-registered Sundust dam. All in all, it is clear that here we are dealing with the Roots of Redpoint breeding in the USA.

Descendants of Sundust

Other pioneers involved in Redpoint breeding in the USA were Dorothy Dimock (Fairfax), Virginia (Caithnes), Lauris White (Mid-South), Lydia Dzbanski (Tap-Toe Fame) Bob Zenda (Tsu-Kee-Ah-Kee) and the famous Don Shaw (LaConDon), who succeeded in breeding an almost barless Redpoint. They all had access to Alice DiFilippo’s Sundust lines and continued her work with great flair. Despite the widespread exchanging of cats between these breeders, not many registered Redpoints can be found within CFA. I suspect that most were registered with ACF. I have been told that much of ACF’s archives were lost in a fire. The sixties saw an enormous improvement in the Redpoint type. The drive towards a perfect Siamese type was enormous and bore fruit.

CFA's first Grand Champion Red Colorpoint Shorthair was Potomac's El Rojo of Van Kay, male born May 26, 1968 bred by Mrs. Wade and owned by Mr.and Mrs. W.E Van Allen. Also one of the first winner was GP Chom Chai's Bewitched Samantha, a spayede female owend by Mr.and Mrs. Thomas Baugh. Other noteworthy Grands: R.Davies female Red Ribbon of Shalero, Whitehead's male Hu-Man's Don Jose, Wallace's male Mai-Ed Chianti, Wood's male Charwin's Ba-Ba-Meissa and Winn's male Potomac Powhatan of Brae Brooke. Talk of the town was maybe Tei Dyed Baronessa of J-Bar. Sge ste the record for her color by becoming a GC at the age of 8 months and 3 weeks. Her sire and dam are Da-Glo's Gorgeous George and C. Mardi Gras Tortie Girl.

It would be very helpfull if you could fill me in about the missing links!!!!!!

Red in South Africa

My research into the Roots of Red in South Africa initially met with many problems. Only a few are involved in breeding red and there was no one interested in the history. But this is where the World Wide Web proved invaluable. I came into contact with Lucy and her daughter Chereen Arends (Taigha cattery). She breeds red and my tenacity awakened their interest in starting research. A nice coincidence was that Lucy is of Dutch descent and asked me to write in Dutch so that her daughter could practice our difficult Dutch language. Afrikaans, by the way, is a lovely language. One advantage seemed that Lucy had recently been entrusted with part of the studbook of the S.A. Cat Register. This gave me access to the most dependable data. Unfortunately the register was not automated and despite all efforts not a lot of red could be found, so that we will probably never be able to establish an accurate history of Red in South Africa. Old catalogues shed some light on the situation. You can imagine my surprise when I hear that I had reached some degree of fame in South Africa thanks to an issue of SiOBaJa magazine!

As most literature, we too assumed that Mrs. Fitchet (Rowsley cattery) was the first to engage in Redpoint breeding in S.A. We suspect that she too started with a Red domestic shorthair. Unfortunately Mrs. Fitchet died just before we tried to contact her, but she was survived by a daughter Muffy Fitchet. Lucy visited her, unfortunately to no avail. Muffy did not know anything about breeding cats, she is a Whippet breeder. She has saved nothing of her mother's estate. You can imagine the shock on hearing this. All that work, all those pedigrees and other valuable data lost! This again goes to show that these things need to be arranged during your life. What Muffy did know was that her mother had not started with Red in 1948, as some sources state, but not until the early 60's. This put the matter in an entirely different light. Data gathered from catalogues tend to support this. Up until now we have not found evidence of Rowsley Redpoints being bred before 1960. This means that Mrs. Fitchet was not the first breeder to start with Red. But who was? We found some other names, and more importantly, the birthdates of the first Redpoints.

We found some other names, and more importantly the years of birth of the first Redpoints. In a newspaper article we found the first Redpoint breeder, or so we thought. A Mr. John Oliver and his then wife Gladys Haswell showed a Redpoint they had bred themselves in 1955. They had bred this Redpoint from a red domestic shorthair and a Sealpoint female. We traced Gladys Haswell, but questions about the Redpoint in question remained unanswered. Although she claims to have bred the first Redpoint, it all remained unclear. She was not aware of any other Redpoint breeders such as Mrs. Bradford and Mrs. Block. It is unclear whether or not this line was used in any further breeding. On the basis of that information we concluded that a Mrs. F. Bradford (Lauriston cattery) and Mrs S.M.Block (April Titian cattery) were the first to become involved in organised Redpoint breeding.

What we have found until now

As far as the available information shows, the first Redpoint was shown on 12-06-1956 at a Western Province Cat Club show in Cape Town. This was Westridge Guinea Gold, born 10-02-1953 and owned by a Mrs. I. Miles. He also had a Tortie sister called Westridge Rice. The sire of these two was Westridge Hamidor of Ananada. There seems to be some confusion over the correct name. The dam was Rumba. We have not been able to find any other data on ancestors. In view of the population and the links to the UK, it is very well possible that there is English red blood behind these lines, but since there is no evidence to this effect, this is pure speculation. And even if it were true, it will still be hard to uncover, since the Red series did not have any status in the UK around that time, this didn’t happen until 1966. That would mean that the Red or Tortie in SA had not gained recognition either and will have disappeared in the books between the other non-recognised breeds (26). There are no Redpoints that we can find between 1956 and 1958. Only after that do April Titian and Lauriston Redpoints regularly appear in the showbenches. The Red and Tortie series were registered as Any Other Variety (AOV). The very first registration numbers did not appear until 1964. The cat Rumba that we mentioned earlier was also registered as AOV, which could mean that she was a Tortie, but she may just as well have been another mixed breed.

Conclusion

It is fair to say that the historybooks with regard to Redpoint breeding in South Africa need to be rewritten. In view of the testimony of Mrs. Fitchet’s daughter and the data available at this time, she can not have bred the first Redpoint. In view of the relatively late start (after 1950) of Mrs. Blok and Mrs Bradford we must question the probability of a unique Red line. With the current data, which unfortunately is not very reliable, the honour of breeding the first S.A. Redpoint should sooner go to Mrs. Bradford. I have uncovered pedigrees of hers which indicate at least 4 generations of Lauriston Red. Her first traceable Redpoint female was born 30-09-1954. The sire was Lauriston Rooi Jan (Sia d) and her dam was Plaasnooi Hwa Pei. Unfortunately there is no further data available on the ancestors of these cats. Plaasnooi must have been either a Tortie- or Redpoint. If Mrs. Bradford had established her own line, this must have been started at least around 1949-1950. Cooperation with Mrs. Blok (April Titian) must have been close. Mrs. Blok had many red Lauriston cats. Only a few April Titian Redpoints could be found with Mrs. Bradford, amongst which April Titian Leprechaun and Cutie Pie, who were used by both breeders for breeding both Lauriston and April Titian Redpoints. Mrs. Fitchet also used some Lauriston Reds.

Mrs Bradford used some amusing names. To name a few: Rooi Hout, Rooi Nek and Rooi Nagapi. It goes without saying, of course, that "Rooi" is Afrikaans for Red.

Red breeders in S.A.

Mrs Fitchet used English lines. She had, amongst others, Appledale Machiavelli (SIA n) and Patrician Tarquin (SIA N) bred by Mrs. Bill Humphreys. This in itself is remarkable, because as far as I was aware Mrs. Humphreys had never exported a cat. Her red came from the Lauriston and April Titian catteries. Other names of Redpoint breeders are L.V. Rudd (Resum cattery), Mr&Mrs. Snow (Lo Shu’s cattery), Mrs. Wolfaardt (of the Forest cattery), N.G. Symons (Norandal cattery), Mrs D. van de Schutte (Ikeyo cattery)

Mrs Blok (April Titian) used Penang Bradgate Sherry bred by Miss I Lapper (UK). Her red came mainly from Mrs. F. Bradford (Lauriston cattery). She also relied fairly heavily on English blood, such as Bradgate Sherry (SIA n).

In the early 80’s the Sukianga Cattery was well known for it’s excellent type. Breeders Ms Bezuidenhout ans Ms Pelser 1.

Ohter breeders; G.Symons (Kay Jay), Mrs Hodgkinson (Camelot), Mrs.G.Beswick (Shay Lin), Mrs Snow (Lo Shu), Phyllis Gardiner (Kinglee)

Breeders currently involved in Redpoint breeding in S.A.:

Chereen & Lucy Wagner (Taigha cattery) Barbara Schambacher, (Mari-Bar-Bet cattery) Michele Fleischman (Michele’s cattery). An acquaintance of mine Bill Thompson is involved in Bicolours and also uses English Red.

Finally

All those different names are probably getting to you. But history is precious and should be cherished. All those pioneers that enthusiastically applied themselves to breeding Redpoint Siamese should never be forgotten. They are the ones that laid the foundations for all future generations of Redpoint breeders. In writing this article they will remain a treasured memory.