This article is from the WSSF 2014 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

By Karen Robbins

Cait Walgate, Humbug Stud, England, Facebook
Walter Maxey founded the NMC in 1895, and I find the historical side of things interesting. I suppose you could say that I collect mouse books, articles, and so on about the fancy. I don’t know if you have already seen/got this book, but there’s a full copy of the fifth edition of C.J. Davies’ book Fancy Mice (1912) online. And, from 1915, U.S. based, Standard of perfection for rabbits, cavies, mice, rats & skunks. Also, Experimental studies of the inheritance of color in mice by C.C. Little, 1913 from the book Reversion In Guinea-pigs and its Explanation; Experimental Studies of the Inheritance of Color in Mice.

I too am very much into the history of the fancy and have been collecting books for many years www.afrma.org/booklist.htm, and in recent years expanded to newspaper articles (PDF) and old magazines (Fur & Feather, All-Pets). Because of this I have found back in the late 1800s/early 1900s there were clubs here in the U.S.A. that had shows on the East Coast/Midwest based after the N.M.C. (the American Mouse Club, American Mouse Fancier’s club, National Pet Stock Association of America/National Breeders and Fanciers Association of America/now the American Rabbit Breeders Association; then in the 1960s another American Mouse Club based in California that Richard Pfarr was involved with [wrote the book Modern American Mouse in 1962]), and stock was imported many times, so what we are doing now is not the first for this country.

Yep, found the C.J. Davies’ book online a while ago and have it on our Book List. Would love to get a real copy though.

Thanks for the info on the Experimental Studies one. I didn’t have that one. This book has the colored plates of mouse colors that I found in posters on Vintage Printable web site with the real plate 1 in another place.

I do have the Standard of Perfection for the National Pet Stock Association (now the ARBA; also comes in a 1920 version) and the one for the American Fur Fanciers’ Association 1915. The AFFA Standards has drawings of the different markings of mice, one labeled Holstein that we would call a Banded with head spot now. These various Standards I have on a History section of the book page. I will eventually have them along with the various clubs’ information on a History of the Fancy page [page now online 2017].