$400K Royal Copenhagen hippo dinnerware

by Joe DiStefano, Posted Sep 17th 2006 @ 10:01AM

Collector Richard Baron Cohen pulled out all the stops when he commisioned a set of porcelain dinnerware. And not just because the 144-piece historic set is adorned with hippopotami.

Cohen not only chose Denmark' s esteemed Royal Copenhagen Porcelain, he selected its famed Flora Danica pattern, which was created for Catherine the Great in 1790. As you can probably guess from the name, normally the 144-piece set would depict all manner of Danish flora. But for some reason he picked African fauna, particularly the hippo.

After a failed effort to find antique etchings of hippos, Cohen hired photographer Sarah Galbraith, who shot the critters in 101 zoos in 33 countries. But from whence comes Cohen's attachment to hippos? As a child he was quite fond of Veronica, a book that chronicles a hippo's trip to the big city.

The set, which cost Cohen a cool $400,000, features 300 hippos in various settings, including two cavorting in the moonlight. He has no plans of eating on it or selling it. I don't know if such a luxury is truly worth all that cabbage, but apparently blogger Mr. Jalopy thinks so.
[via BoingBoing]

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Tags: america, Catherine the Great, CatherineTheGreat, europe, hippo, hippopotami, hippopotamus, hippos, Mr. Jalopy, Mr.Jalopy, porcelain dinnerware, PorcelainDinnerware, Richard Baron Cohen, RichardBaronCohen, Royal Copenhagen, Royal Copenhagen Porcelain, RoyalCopenhagen, RoyalCopenhagenPorcelain, Veronica