Tuesday, April 28, 2015

The Victorian (and pre-Victorian) Pug Cult

"Blonde and Brunette" by Charles Burton Barber
The rise of the pug cult is popularly traced back to when the British found pugs in the Chinese Imperial Palace during their invasion of China in 1860 and brought them back to England, where black pugs, in particular were made popular by someone called Lady Brassey. "Lady Brassey" probably refers to the travel writer and Baroness, Anna Brassey, who died in 1887. Though it is said she presented a black pug at the Maidstone show in 1886, just a year before her death.

Soon after Brassey made them cool, Queen Victoria became fond of the breed. She had several and it was through her involvement in breeding pugs that the Kennel Club was established in 1873. It was, consequently, a pug who won the first best in show of the Westminster Kennel Club in 1877.

Dog fancying is linked to the Victorian cult of domesticity, supported by the Queen, who commissioned a painter, specifically Charles Burton Barber, to capture her beautiful dogs (and others) on canvas.

"A Monster" by Charles Burton Barber
According to one blogger, other artists followed suit with amazing results:


I've been wearing mostly jeans, and one blazer has already had a few threads pulled since I got my own little brindle pug a few weeks ago, so I am astonished at that dress. All of the pictures above depict scenes of feminine domestic bliss in the typical Victorian fashion: women and children in household settings with their pets. But, as with everything in the nineteenth century, nothing was as simple as it seemed.




Before Victorian England embraced them, pugs were part of a very masculine culture in continental Europe and this is where it gets really weird.


The Mops-Orden (German for the "Order of the Pug" was a Catholic para-Masonic society that was supposedly founded by Klemens August of Bavaria in 1740 to bypass a papal bull. To the Order of the Pug, the pug represented loyalty, trustworthiness and steadiness, whereas now they are known primarily for their flat faces and love of cheese. Those who belonged to the Order of the Pug were called Mops (Pugs). New members underwent an initiation process that involved wearing a dog collar and behaving, in various ways, like a dog: scratching at the door to get in and kissing a porcelain pug's bum.

The secrets of the Order of the Pug were exposed in Amsterdam in 1745, but it took three years for anyone to ban them (maybe it took that long for them to take it seriously). However, it is rumoured that the Order was active until 1902.

A Pug by Carl Reichert (1836-1918)
Before the British Invasion in 1860, pugs were imported to the European continent by the Dutch East India Company. The dogs have a long history in China and are considered one of the oldest and most loyal breeds, housed only in Tibetan Monasteries and by members of the Chinese Imperial household.

Aside from Queen Victoria's pugs, Minka, Venus, Rooney, Olga, Fatima and Pedro, the most famous pug in European history is probably a little guy, called "Pompey," who, contrary to Monty Python lore, expected the Spanish Inquisition and alerted his master the Prince of Orange William the Silent to their arrival in 1572, thereby saving his life.

So while it is popular to trace the pug cult back to Queen Victoria and Lady Brassey, it has most certainly been around a lot longer than that!

Queen Victoria and one of her pugs.
Follow me on Twitter @TinyApplePress and like the Facebook page for updates!

If you have enjoyed the work that I do, please support my Victorian Dictionary Project!

3 comments:

  1. I was married at 32 and immediately tried to get pregnant. When I was unable to conceive I had blood tests for fertility and was told that I had an FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) of 54 and would not be able to have children. Even though the doctors knew that I had been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis since age 25, no one bothered to check my thyroid levels. my TSH was measured at .001. My Synthroid dosage was lowered. a friend advise me to contact a spiritualist who help with fertility with his medicine, i collected his contact and explain my situation to him he prepared for me a herbal medicine which i took as describe by him. became pregnant very quickly, I had a successful pregnancy. I have my baby august 2017. to get pregnant at age 35 with my 2nd child in september 2019, thank you sir , this is his email contact if you require his help babaka.wolf@gmail.com or Facebook at priest.babaka

    ReplyDelete
  2. I want to thank Dr Patrick a very powerful spell caster who help me to bring my husband back to me, few month ago i have a serious problem with my husband, to the extent that he left the house, and he started dating another woman and he stayed with the woman, i tried all i can to bring him back, but all my effort was useless until the day my friend came to my house and i told her every thing that had happened between me and my husband, then she told me of a powerful spell caster who help her when she was in the same problem I then contact Dr Patrick and told him everything and he told me not to worry my self again that my husband will come back to me after he has cast a spell on him, i thought it was a joke, after he had finish casting the spell, he told me that he had just finish casting the spell, to my greatest surprise within 48 hours, my husband really came back begging me to forgive him, if you need his help you can contact him with via email: drpatrickspellcaster@gmail.com or add him up on his whatsapp +1 662 493 2087 is willing to help anybody that needs his help.
    https://sabachaudhry1.blogspot.com/
    https://drpatrickspellcast.blogspot.com
    https://www.facebook.com/Drpatrickspellcaster11

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi there,

    Thank you so much for the post you do and also I like your post, are you looking Buy Healthy Pugs in the whole USA? We are providing Order Cute Pug Online, Buy Pug for cheap price Online, Buy Pug for sale Online, Buy Different breed of Pugs online, cute pug puppies, pug breed dog, black pug puppies for sale, little pug for sale, black pug price, black pugs for sale, small pug dog, buy a pug, Chinese pugs for sale, toy pug puppies, small pug breeds, real pugs for sale, pure breed pug puppies, adorable pug for sale, pug puppies for sale in usa, buy pug puppy, lack pug dog price, pug dog puppy price, Buy Pug for cheap price Online in the world with the well price and our services are very fast.

    Click here href=" "https://pugbreeddogz.com/health-guarantee/"> title=” Pug for sale online | Pug for online | Canadian Pug | Buy Pug online"
    MORE DETAILS......
    Contact us at: +1 (817) 398-3135
    Email: info@pugbreeddogz.com

    ReplyDelete