THE RED POINT & TORTIE POINT SIAMESE CAT CLUB

In 1948 Dr Nora Archer obtained, from Mrs Price, a Red Point male kitten, Somerville Scarlet Pimpernel, whose sire was a Seal Point and whose dam was a tortoiseshell half-Siamese. This Red Point was mated to a Seal Point female, Doneraile Dew, to produce a Tortie Point, Somerville Harlequinna, whose daughter. Somerville Golden Seal, was the first Red Point female. Dr Archer bred back to Seal Points to improve type.

Miss Ray had a Tortie Point cat from Dr Archer and mated it to a Seal Point male to produce a Red Point male who was mated back to his mother to give a Red Point female. Miss Ray then bred five generations of Red Point to Red Point matings. Miss Ray applied twice to the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy for a breed number and recognition of her cats as Siamese, but this was refused. The GCCF suggested to Miss Ray that Red Points should be offered a breed number under the description "Foreign Shorthair": this was unacceptable to Miss Ray and other Red Point breeders because it ignored the fact that these cats were Siamese in type, eye colour and distribution of colour, and that after ten generations from the original outcross they were genetically Siamese. Miss Ray hoped to start a club for Red Point breeders and it was in fact started, just before her death, by Mrs Lingard and Mrs Cahill. The club was open to anyone interested in Red Points, whether breeders or not, and prepared material on the background of Red Points to support a new application to the GCCF.

In 1966 Red Points were granted breed number 32a and Seal Tortie Points 32b, with immediate championship status. Blue, Chocolate and Lilac Tortie Points and Cream Points were classified as breed number 32c - Any Other Dilution Siamese. In May 1967 the Red Point & Tortie Point Siamese Cat Club was granted affiliation to the GCCF.

In February 1971 the revised Standard of Points for Tortie Points was approved and Blue, Chocolate and Lilac Tortie Points were transferred to breed number 32b, with championship status. This left the Cream Points in 32c with red, cream and tortie Tabby Points and all other unclassified Siamese. In October 1973 red, cream and tortie Tabby Points were accepted as breed 32, with championship status, leaving 32c to Cream Points and the occasional by-product of other breeding programmes. In 1974 the Club asked for championship status for Cream Points: this was refused but an official Standard of Points for Cream Points was approved and they were granted sole use of breed number 32c, 32x being allocated to any other colour of Siamese as yet unrecognised. Cream Points finally attained championship status on 1st June 1977.

In February 1979 the GCCF gave permission for Tortie Point breed numbers to be split, for registration purposes only, as follows: seal - 32b1, blue - 32b2, chocolate - 32b3 and lilac - 32b4. In February 1980 the GCCF approved revised Standards of Points for all Siamese, including those for Red, Tortie and Cream Points. The Siamese section of the Standard of Points then remained totally unchanged until 1990, although the "List of Defects" which applies to all breeds was approved in June 1985 and prefaced the Standard of Points booklet when it was reprinted in 1986.

In October 1990 the 5 points for condition were deleted from the Siamese Scale of Points (as lack of condition was listed as a withholding fault in the preface) and the points for body colour were increased to 15. The faults were also amended: some were deleted because they were listed in the preface and others were upgraded from faults to withholding faults. The remainder of the Standard of Points was unchanged. When the Standard of Points booklet was reprinted in September 1992, the Standards were revised so that all breeds were described in a similar order - head, body, tail, coat, colour etc. - although the wording remained basically unaltered.

In June 1993, slight amendments to the general Standard for all Siamese, including the withholding faults, and revised Standards of Points for Seal, Red, Tortie and Cream Point Siamese were approved, to take effect from 1st June 1994. (A revised Standard for Tabby Points was approved in October 1992.)

In October 1993, Cinnamon, Caramel and Fawn Tortie Points were granted Preliminary recognition (together with Cinnamon, Caramel and Fawn Points and Cinnamon, Caramel, Fawn, Cinnamon Tortie, Caramel Tortie and Fawn Tortie Tabby Points); for the first time since June 1983, when Balinese were granted Provisional status, the Siamese section had Assessment classes. In June 1998 Apricot Points (and Apricot Tabby Points) were also granted Preliminary recognition and joined the Assessment class. In June 2000 the Caramel Tortie Points moved from the Assessment class to join the other colours of Tortie Point in the Championship status class.

In June 2004 the Cinnamon and Fawn Tortie Points moved from the Assessment class to the Championship status class with the other colours of Tortie Point, and Apricot Points gained Provisional recognition. In June 2009 the Apricot Points moved from the Intermediate class to the Championship status class.

In 2014 the GCCF transfered the old GCCF breed numbers to GEMS, the GCCF Easy Mind System. The GEMS codes consist of a number of elements separated by spaces; breed, colour and numerical codes (for any other characteristics). Only the breed part is mandatory, the other elements may or may not be required to describe the cat. 

A red point Siamese in GEMS code is SIA d and a blue tortie tabby point Siamese is a SIA g 21. More about GEMS here.

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