SHIH TZU

The Shih Tzu is the little lion of the Chinese court. Its name means lion dog, a nod to the Buddhist symbolism carried east from Tibet, and for centuries it lived behind the walls of the imperial palace, bred for the emperors of China and forbidden to the world beyond.

It was the favourite of the Empress Dowager Cixi, who kept great kennels of them and guarded her lines jealously. Prized for its chrysanthemum face and flowing coat, the breed was a living ornament of imperial luxury, a creature of silk cushions and lacquered halls that the outside world would not glimpse until the twentieth century.

The Shih Tzu edition honours that secret grandeur. A sage grey linen cover, the breed's cascading coat and upturned face captured through extreme macro photography, each strand falling like spun silk, each dark eye bright with palace confidence. A book that brings the emperor's lion dog out from behind the vermilion walls and into the light.