Kliban cat birthday cake
Feline Funnies,  Holidays,  Layla Morgan Wilde

100 years of Birthdays, Cakes and Cats

If you love cats, sharing makes us purrrr :-)

 

  • We’re in another heatwave and if you haven’t checked out our tips for keeping cats cool, please do right here We’ve added a video from our friends at Cole And Marmalade demonstrating how to make frozen treats for cats. Very cool!
  • We are happy to announce the winner of our Drinkwell 360 Pet Fountain Giveaway from Petsafe is Carolsue. Congratulations! Please look for an email from Cat Wisdom 101 requesting your shipping address.

As soon as photography caught on as the latest craze in the 1880s, it was inevitable that cats would be charming their way into our birthday wishes ever since.

antique cat birthday photo

By the ’30s cute poems and graphics were popular on cards with staged setting of real cats or colored illustrations.

VINTAGE CAT BIRTHDAY TEDDY BEAR.

mainzer- eugen hartung cat birthday

The illustrator king of kitty anthropomorphism was Eugen Hartung, a Swiss artist who worked for Alfred Mainzer, a printer from the ’40s to ’60s. He captured cats living the human experience with all the joys and pitfalls.

Post war America favored illustrations of cute kittenish cats for kid’s birthday cards and saucier versions for adults.

vintage cats birthday vintage birthday card cats

 

 

 

 

 

 

vintage cat birthday martini

This is one of my all time favorite cat illustrations by Ronald Searles. His book, Big Fat Cat is a classic.

Ronald Searles cat cakes

Nothing is more quintessentially late ’70s to ’80s than the Kliban cat by the prolific Bernard Kliban, an illustrator who died in 1990 at age 55. The instantly recognizable tabby is still a coveted collectible on Ebay but new products are available Pomegranate

Kliban cat birthday cake

By the year 2000, cats and anthropomorphism continued as colorfully as ever. Marie Antoinette is famous for the saying “Let them eat cake” but she never actually said that. Maybe it was a cat after all. It’s easy to imagine cats saying worse and demanding more.

Cat birthday fish cake

birthday cat cake Happy birthday cats cake etsy

Contemporary cat art birthday cards abound on Etsy .i.e. this one from This Week in Cats I can safely say, there will be more cat birthday cards in my future. How about you? Which card is your favorite?

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