C. Moody after B. Hubbard

The Prize Heifer Flower

31 x 27 inches

A lithograph in full original hand colour; lithographed by Moody after Hubbard and published in Lincolnshire circa 1850.

There is something wonderfully endearing about a cow as large as this (weighing in at over 80 stone!) being given the delicate name of Flower. She was bred by Thomas Moses near Louth in Lincolnshire and started winning prizes at agricultural shows from the early 1840s onwards. She was awarded Best She-Calf at Caistor in 1843 and Best Yearling Heifer at Horncastle in 1844. Looking at her fabulous girth it is not difficult to see why she won so many prizes and attracted so much attention. This was at a time when there was a widespread fascination for breeding very large cattle, pigs and sheep and taking them "on tour" around the country ending perhaps with a final public performance at Spitalfields in London Many of the cows in particular became so inordinately large that they could only stand with the aid of specially constructed wooden supports. At least in this wonderful print we see Flower standing unaided in the beautiful Lincolnshire countryside.