Hippopotamus in Lilac 18th century dress This hand stitched Victorian paper

This hand stitched Victorian paper dress is made from Japanese paper embellished with glass beads

Based on a 1774 illustration of Bradypus torquatus (Brazilian three-toed sloth) from ‘Die Såugthiere in Abbildungen Nach Der Natur’

Materials: Italian paper and cotton floss on cotton paper

offered for sale by Augusta Auctions in 2022

and applied in a new way and with reason’

Hippopotamus in Lilac 18th century dress This hand stitched Victorian paperOne 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