Hippopotamus in Lime Green & Gold 1920s and 1930s dress 75 inches wide

75 inches wide

Based on a 1774 illustration of Dasypus tricinctus (Brazilian three-banded armadillo)’ from ‘Die Såugthiere in Abbildungen Nach Der Natur’

In a departure from the often ornate dresses of the time

The mushroom is 4

silk floss

Hippopotamus in Lime Green & Gold 1920s and 1930s dress 75 inches wideOne of my favourite things about old natural history illustrations are the number of animals that were obviously drawn from descriptions, by artists who had never seen the real thing. So many old hippo drawings just looked all wrong, with little tiny heads! I finally found a happy hippo with a properly gigantic head in the 1895 book Brehm's Life of Animals: A Complete Natural History for Popular Home Instruction and for the Use of Schools. The