•D2422. Blue and White Figure of a Cow

Marked with an unidentified MVS mark

Painted with a blue-spotted hide, blue horns, muzzle, forelock, ear linings, spine, tail, and hooves, wearing garlands of flowers around its neck and back, and modeled affronté, standing foursquare on a rectangular base molded on the top with frogs, a snake, a shell and leaves.

DIMENSIONS
Height: 15.5 cm. (6.1 in.)
Width 23.5 cm. (9.3 in.)

PROVENANCE
French Private Collection, Paris, 2023 (Provenance+)

NOTE
The decoration of this cow refers to the seventeenth- century ‘guild oxen’. Each year on the day of its patron saint St. Luke (whose attribute is the apocalyptic beast, the winged ox), the Butcher’s Guild would hold a parade celebrating the best-bred bull or cow from their guild. The beast would be decorated with floral wreaths and ribbons, its horns often gilded and sometimes tipped with oranges. The festive procession was joined by musicians. The meat of that animal was intended for the subsequent guild dinner, and a portion of it was donated to the church and the poor. The expression “the guild-ox is on parade” became synonymous with “this is a feast.”

This early figure of a cow, dated 1715 shows that the Delft tradition of creating guild-oxen models was introduced earlier than previously assumed. Another pair of blue and white cows, of the same model, currently in a private collection, is marked LVE for Lambertus van Eenhoorn, the owner of De Metaale Pot (The Metal Pot) factory from 1691 until 1721, or his widow Margaretha Teckmann until 1724, which makes a dating in the first quarter of the eighteenth century undeniable.

For further information on Delft cows visit: https://www.aronson.com/the-feast-of-delft-cows/