A PAIR OF CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN COWS

Breeding Simmental cattle was a passion of Peggy Rockefeller, who believed deeply in the preservation of agriculture and of farmland. In 1992 David and Peggy Rockefeller put almost 3,000 acres of their Hudson Valley cattle-raising properties into a land trust.

The Dutch East India Co. sent Delft cows to China to be copied in 1746, and in 1747 requested, "Cows, each pair with the heads facing each other, white grounds some with brown....according to sample." See W.R. Sargent, op. cit., p. 228.