Princess Enjoys Kittens and Cash

“When royalty descends openly to business of this sort for what can be made out of it, aristocratic folk of the humbler variety surely need not feel that they lose caste by engaging in trade of any kind. Yet when a woman of title gets hard up and goes in for millinery, dressmaking, or any form of shopkeeping, she thereby loses her right to presentation at court... Some day, quite likely, we shall have a radical parliament proposing to dock the allowance made to Princes and Princesses who engage in money making schemes in which their rank gives them such a tremendous advantage.” – Princess Victoria was the fourth child and second daughter of King Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark, and the younger sister of King George V. – photo source, Pinterest  

Princess Finds Profit in Cats!

Victoria breeds pets for income, advertises them for sale 

Special Cable to The Herald. LONDON, Sept. 16.— Every one knows by this time that Queen Alexandra is a cat lover, but it has come as a surprise to a number of English women that her daughter, Princess Victoria, is not only a lover of cats, but an energetic and enthusiastic breeder as well. The Princess does not breed cats, it appears, merely to increase the number of her feline pets. Her “catteries” are worked on a solid commercial basis, and apparently with considerable profit to her private pocketbook. That her enterprise is conducted on thorough business lines may be seen from the following announcement which appears in a weekly paper whose space is mainly devoted to sales and exchanges of miscellaneous articles:

“Her royal highness, Princess Victoria, has for sale several handsome chinchilla kittens. Sire, Puck 111., ex-Chela, also Chela, splendid mother, lovely green eyes; blue Persian female; cheap to good homes; must sell. Mrs. Amor, Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Great Park.”

Picture of Princess Victoria ("Toria"), daughter of Edward VII & Queen Alexandra (1868-1935) holding a cat on the royal yacht. The picture was taken in about 1914 –Pinterest

A hint for plebeians: Mrs. Amor, I am told, occupies an important position in the household staff at Cumberland Lodge. “Cheap” is always a relative term, but in this instance it stands for anything between $25 and $100. When royalty descends openly to business of this sort for what can be made out of it, aristocratic folk of the humbler variety surely need not feel that they lose caste by engaging in trade of any kind. Yet when a woman of title gets hard up and goes in for millinery, dressmaking, or any form of shopkeeping, she thereby loses her right to presentation at court. In view of the fact that his Majesty does not even draw the line at making money out of cats in his own exalted family circle, it would seem that he ought, in justice, to rescind this rule. 

Of course there are lot of folks here— and not a few, I imagine, in the land of triumphant democracy— who would consider a cat bred by royalty worth many times more than a cat from a plebeian home. Such competition seems hardly fair to those who are compelled to sell cats solely on their merits. Some day, quite likely, we shall have a radical parliament proposing to dock the allowance made to Princes and Princesses who engage in money making schemes in which their rank gives them such a tremendous advantage. – Los Angeles Herald, 1905

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