http://jalopyjunktown.com…service_14.html
Click on the link above to get to Mr. Jalopy’s wise comments on a collector’s eccentric and elaborate scheme to obtain a 144 piece hippo themed dinner service.
In 2003, [Richard Baron Cohen] met a ceramics scholar for lunch and they wound up talking about Royal Copenhagen’s 1880s dinner patterns, and how they often featured bears, ducks or birds. Mr. Cohen said, “You know, I think I’d like to see a hippo on one of those.”
He scrounged for antique etchings of hippos but eventually decided to go all out and hire photographer Sarah Galbraith to document the names and faces of nearly every hippo in captivity — she ultimately traveled to 101 zoos in 33 countries, including Vietnam, South Africa, Australia and Sri Lanka. (She has chronicled her trips in a blog, “Joined at the Hippo: The story of traveling the world, one hippo at a time.”)
It cost him a mere $400,000 and I agree with Mr. J that this was a wonderful way to share the wealth, though it is a shame he won’t even use them once.. they’re going straight into his collection cases.
Mr Cohen has his hippoes.. but where the fuck is my hippo?
