Kaspar

The black-lacquered Art Deco cat known as Kaspar was carved in 1926 by the British architect Basil Ionides (1884–1950) for the Savoy Hotel on the Strand in London, then under the management of the D'Oyly Carte family. Ionides was at that point a leading London interior designer associated with the Art Deco refurbishment of the Savoy Theatre next door, completed in 1929, and was the husband of the Savoy heiress Nellie Carte. The Kaspar figure stands approximately seventy-five centimetres tall and is carved from solid plane-wood with a black-lacquered finish; it depicts a stylised seated cat with hinged limbs that allow it to be posed at a dining table. The Savoy's motivation traces to a specific 1898 incident. On 13 March 1898 the South African diamond magnate Woolf Joel hosted a private dinner at the hotel for fourteen guests; one cancelled at the last minute, reducing the table to thirteen. Joel disregarded the host's offer to reseat the party and was murdered ten days later in Johannesburg by a former associate, Baron Ludwig von Veltheim. The hotel quietly acquired a reputation for diner anxiety, which the management addressed for the next quarter-century by sending a member of staff to occupy any thirteenth seat. The 1926 commissioning of Kaspar formalised the policy. Since 1927 the figure has been carried in by uniformed staff and placed at the fourteenth place setting for any party of thirteen booked at the Savoy's Grill or River Restaurant. A napkin is tied around his neck at the start of the meal, and the same courses ordered at the table are placed before him for the duration. Winston Churchill, a frequent Savoy guest, was particularly fond of Kaspar, and minutes of his dining-club meetings at the hotel from 1932 onward include the cat as an attendee. The figure remains in active use; it is briefly profiled in the Savoy's 2009 official history by Stanley Jackson and in the hotel's archive guide.