May 26, 1867

The Russian royal Romanoffs were not the only patrons and recipients of Faberge art pieces. British royalty were too. The man who would become George V  (June 3, 1865 to January 20, 1936) of England, in 1907, was not yet King and still of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. He and his wife have been credited with saving England from the fate of the Romanoffs -- a revolution deposing the royal family. One way they did this was retracting their invitation to the Tsar's family to shelter in England. Another was to change the family name to the English sounding Windsor. And they reached out to the English people publicly, visiting more openings, that kind of thing. In fact the British honors system was established during the war, and has functioned nicely I think, to make the monarch's attention a wider and nationally unifying experience.

In 1907 The Prince of Wales gave his wife, Princess Mary of Teck, (May 26, 1867 to March 24 1953) a cat. Not a breathing moggie of course. A statue of a cat.

Above we see a statue made by Michael Perchin, (1860-1903) an artist with the Faberge house. The cat is made of jasper with eyes of gold and olivine. George gave it to Mary in 1907. Her granddaughter, the current Queen, owns the copyright to this picture, and the cat.