Vintage Solid Brass Cow Door Stop in Polished Gold

A cow that holds doors open is a better piece of design than most things that get called design! This one is cast in solid brass, stands square on a stepped oval base, and has the weight you need to keep a heavy door pinned back on a windy day. Pick her up and you will feel it.

The modelling is confident. She has a broad muzzle, short curved horns, alert ears and the soft folds of a dairy breed across her chest and belly, with a tail curled neatly against her flank. The brass has been polished so the raised planes of her back and head catch the light, while the creases of the casting have kept a darker tone that gives her definition. On the base, the ridged surface is cast to suggest grass or rough ground, which stops her looking like a paperweight and makes her a proper figure.

We think she dates from the 1960s or 1970s, when brass animal door stops were made in large numbers in England and India for country houses and cottages that had no shortage of doors to prop. She measures 20 x 15 x 4 cm, small enough for a bedroom or study door and heavy enough for a front door with a draught behind it.

She works just as well off duty. Set her on a hearth, on the end of a mantelpiece, or on a hallway table beside a stack of books where she can double as a bookend. In a kitchen she looks at home next to enamel jugs and a striped tea towel. Children tend to name these cows within a day of them arriving.

Condition is very good. The brass has an even, warm polish with light surface marks from use, and there is a slight darkening in the recesses of the casting which is where the character lives. She stands flat and steady with no wobble.

If you have a room that leans to the rustic or the farmhouse, she will settle in. If your room is sleek and modern, she will be the thing everyone talks about.