TANJORE, SOUTH INDIA, LATE 19TH CENTURY

The goddess Kamadhenu presented here appears in her simplest form, realistically rendered. However she can also be depicted with a hybrid body composed of a head of a woman, the body of a cow with the wings of an eagle and the tail of a peacock. She is a Hindu divinity believed to fulfil all its owner's wishes and is sometimes also identified as the magic wish-granting cow Surabhi. A depiction of Kamadhenu from Trichinopoly is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (IM.417.1923).

A comparable example sold at Christie’s South Kensington, 12 June 2014, lot 145.