 "William" is a
bright blue hippopotamus just under 8 inches high located in the Metropolitan Museum of
Art's Egyptian
galleries. He is made of faience, a ceramic material that is fired at a high
temperature, and is decorated with lotus blossoms, which represent the hippo's creative
forces in nature.
An Englishman, Captain H. M. Raleigh, and his family owned a picture of the
hippopotamus, which they named William. In 1931 the captain wrote an article for the
magazine Punch about his picture of William. The name caught on, and since that
time the little blue hippo has been known as William to almost everyone. |
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