Measuring 5ft 4in (1.62m) long, the cow’s 18th century Irish origins may have accounted for some of the hysterical telephone bidding (14 lines were in operation for this piece), and undoubtedly it was a rare and unusual piece of primitive statuary. But more than anything it was the creature’s bucolic bovine charm which stimulated the whimsy of wealthy bidders, and it was an English private buyer who staved off Irish interest to secure the beast at £40,000, where only £5000-8000 had been expected.
Stone model of a recumbent cow
UK: THE Thames-side meadows at Christopher Gibbs’ Manor House in Oxfordshire contained a number of pieces of classical statuary with important provenances, but none proved so valuable as this unheralded stone model of a recumbent cow.
