PUG

The Pug is the clown of emperors, an ancient Chinese breed prized in the imperial court centuries before it ever reached the West. Bred as the treasured companion of the Sons of Heaven, it lived a life of silk cushions and palace halls, its wrinkled brow said to echo the character for prince. Its Latin motto, multum in parvo, a lot in a little, has followed it ever since. Dutch traders carried it to Europe, where it became the mascot of the House of Orange after a Pug named Pompey is said to have woken William the Silent in time to save him from assassination. Marie Antoinette arrived at Versailles with her Pug Mops; Josephine used hers to carry secret notes to the imprisoned Napoleon; Queen Victoria bred them by the dozen. Few small dogs have kept such consistently royal company. The Pug edition is the most disarming in the REMUS Collection. A burgundy linen cover, the breed's short smooth coat and deeply folded face reimagined through extreme macro photography, every wrinkle and every soft velvet fold caught in low light, every dark eye holding its ancient comic gravity. A tribute to the little emperor's dog that has never once taken itself seriously.