Harrison Weir (1824-1906) founded the National Cat Club in 1887 and is regarded by some as the “Father of Cat Fancy.” He owned numerous cats throughout his lifetime and today, I’m introducing you to his “Old Lady”, a grand silver tabby, who was a part of the Weir household.
Weir included this drawing of his cat in his 1892 book Our Cats and All About Them. In the list of illustrations he refers to her as a silver tabby. In the body of the text, he calls her a blue tabby. Blue tabby was a phrase I hadn’t seen before. Apparently, it’s a tabby cat with black fur where the stripes are also dark and sometimes hard to see. The explanation also said that sometimes a cat can be a blue tabby when it’s young and the stripes will become more defined as it matures.
Either way, this silver tabby has some lovely markings on her back. We don’t get to see her sweet face but we do see that she is apparently hunting some small creature in the background of the drawing. Weir often commented that cats were superior to dogs because they were useful – they helped to control the “varmint” population.
The full-sized version of this silver tabby cat drawing is too large to display here. So, simply click on the drawing above to access it.
This image is copyright free and in the public domain anywhere that extends copyrights 70 years after death or at least 120 years after publication when the original illustrator is unknown.
