Laurence Sterne's porcelain cow

A porcelain (French Delft) cow believed to have been owned by Laurence Sterne. The cow, which is from Rouen, was believed to have been purchased by Sterne during a visit to France in the 1760s and brought back to Shandy Hall where it remained until his death in 1768. It then came into the possession of a domestic servant at Shandy Hall, the great-grandmother of Thomas Goodrick, who later inherited the cow after it was passed down through his family. In 1927 Thomas Goodrick was a retired shoemaker, living at Fern Cottage in Kilburn, near Coxwold. He was over eighty years of age. On the 25th June 1927 he sold the cow to Lewis Perry Curtis, a Sterne scholar. An affidavit exists, written by Thomas Parsons Cooper, testifying to these facts. Curtis purchased the cow in pieces and had it repaired and restored in America. The lower part of all four legs and the green grass 'platform' are all believed to be contemporary additions. After the death of Lewis Perry Curtis in 1972, his widow Jane sent the cow back home to Shandy Hall. The cow is in bad repair. It has four broken legs which have been repaired and it is missing the tip off one of its horns. It is standing on a green porcelain base. The cow itself is white in colour, with decoration including blue dots on its legs and body and multicolored floral decoration on its back and arouns its neck. Its horns are black.