In 1930, Mr. Alter Huey of Indiana, a noted Havana breeder, noticed some baby rabbits with exceptionally shiny coats in a nest box of young rabbits.
Huey was inbreeding his Havanas trying to increase the deep chocolate color. From 1930 until around 1936 Huey started saving and selecting the young animals with the shine coats for vigor and he sent some to Harvard University where geneticists determined the mutation was "A simple genetic recessive of the sheen and texture, not length".
In the early stages of the mutation it was shown along with the regular Havanas classes causing much discussion. Along around 1938 the Satin Havana was being shown as a separate variety of the Havana breed. They followed the general type and weight of the Havana breed.
By 1940 many breeders had started Satinizing other breeds and variaties using the original Havana Satin. In 1946 the American Satin Rabbit Breeders Association was formed; however, the only Satin breed recognized by the ARBA was the Havana Satin. Working standard for the White, Black, Orange, Lilac, and Black Silver Martin Satins were adopted.
In 1949 weights were proposed for the new Satin varieties. Ideal weights for White bucks as nine pounds, White does ten pounds, colored bucks seven plus and colored does seven and one- half pounds plus.
The ARBA adopted a Satin Standard for eight varieties with description similar to today's standard description with one interesting difference and that was difference points for type and color between the Whites and Colored varieties.
In 1965 the Siamese variety was added and the difference in points between the Whites and Colored was eliminated. In 1985 a Broken variety was accepted and the weights were established uniformly for all varieties.
This information was taken from an article from the Domestic Rabbit magazine Volume 29, Number 6 November/December 2001. It came just after the Standards Committee Report written by Tex Thomas.
