With a few other feline breeds, the Persian has the honour to come in all the colours conceivable in cats. From the creation of the breed in the 19th century in Great Britain, almost all these colours were already present, but some were ignored or even despised, and disappeared to be seen again only decades later.
Nowadays, the Persians are classed in large varieties, which include all the combinations of colours possible. Here is a panorama of those thousand and one colours.
Once called self, the solid Persians have only one colour on their whole body, without any tabby marking or white spot. A black Persian, for instance, is jet black from the root to the tip of the hair. The blue Persian was for a long time one of the most sought Persians, because it symbolised THE “the purebred cat” at the very beginning of cat fancy with its long coat and subtle shade, which was completely unknown in English barn cats. It was so popular that as of 1901, a British feline club – The Blue Persian Society – was entirely devoted to its breeding and selection.
Blue Persian.
Beside the blue and black Persians, we also find the red Persian, the cream Persian, and their feminine variations, the tortie, and the blue cream, where the shades of red, black, blue and cream intimately mingle to give some of the finest feline coats of the feline species. More recently, new colours were added to these classic colours: the lilac and the chocolate, thanks – amongst other things – to crosses with chocolate point and lilac point Birmans. And while cinnamon and fawn are possible, these two colours are still very rare in Persians.
The white colour: something apart
Although white is not really a colour, as it is in fact a shade that masks all the other colours, white Persians are classed with the other solid cats.
White Persian.
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