“Pussy-cat, Pussy-cat, where have you been?”

This was the first line of an article that appeared today 13th July in the Daily Telegraph of 1871. The item went on to say that it would “be the question put to poor puss on many a hearthrug, many a shop-board, in many a sunny shop-window, on velvet cushions and on dining room chairs, to the aristocratic and the humble Puss, with soft caressings behind the ear and with careful greetings in the neighbourhood of the front paw, when our cat comes back from the Crystal Palace.”

Yes, the world’s first “Championship Cat Show” had taken place at London’s Crystal Palace. Although the first cat show had taken place at Crystal Palace several years earlier, this was a Championship Cat Show and was the idea of a chap named Harrison Weir. Harrison wrote the breed standards against which the cats would be judged and grouped them according to the length of their fur, colour, shape and build.

The Crystal Palace had held many exhibitions – the Great Exhibition of 1851 being the most notable – and the Victorian public flocked to see them. The Championship Cat Show was no exception. Many of the cats at the event were long-haired but Weir preferred the short-haired cats.

The winner of this auspicious event? The press reported it as being “a Persian she-cat of rare violet colour”.