By ERIC C. RODENBERG
Antique Week Correspondent DALLAS, Texas — There is something about a cow.
That’s a statement not lost on Derrill Osborn, the man who once dressed John F. Kennedy Jr., and presided over the hallowed halls of Neiman Marcus.
Many artists and wits have pondered upon the cow.
Perhaps, Ogden Nash – in his inimitable style – most succinctly defined the cow:
“The cow is of the bovine ilk;
One end is moo, the other, milk.”
But, there is more, according to serious bovine watchers such as Osborn.
“We could learn much from the cow,” Osborn says. “If we were all as content as the cow, life would be easier. They live to eat and sleep, and take their time to see the world … In much of the world, the cow is a deity. There is a great reverence and respect for the cow. Here, the cow gives us milk, butter, cream, cheese and meat. I have a great respect for the cow.”
That said, however, Osborn is preparing to turn his cows out to pasture – out onto the roads of the world. On Oct. 14, he will be selling his lifetime collection of “art de la veche” (bovine art) at the Dallas Auction Gallery. For him – the flamboyant raconteur who has been regularly featured in GQ, Vogue Hommes and Esquire magazines, resplendent in wide brimmed hat, handle-barred mustache and signature fresh boutonniere – the auction will be an “event.”
And, as usual, he is not far from wrong. From any perspective, it is not an auction to be taken lightly.
The Osborn collection boasts more than 500 cows whose origins span the globe and several centuries. Represented among the herd are highly unusual Staffordshire pieces, majolica, Flow Blue, Black Forest carvings, 19th and 20th century bovine paintings as well as fashionable treasures Osborn has amassed over the years.
In short, these cows are the crème de crème of the species.
Highlights include a pair of Empire-styled armchairs featuring a vivid Atelier Versace Medusa print on balloon seat cushions from material which was a personal gift from Versace to Osborn. Among the fine paintings are an 1858 painting of a cow in landscape by British artist William Henry Davis; and a very busy and interesting oil on canvas of 5,000 cows on the Chisholm Trail Cattle Drive, copied from a 19th century photograph of a Charles Goodnight cattle drive.
“It is a rarity to find a collection so passionately and lovingly assembled over a lifetime,” Scott Shuford, president of Dallas Auction Gallery, said. “The combination of hundreds of cows and the drama and glamour of Derrill Osborn is already generating interest in the event.”
Osborn, who just turned 67 years old, began his collection as a very young man.
“My first bovine was from my great grandfather, a cowboy, rancher and whittler,” he says. “He gave me this little whittled cow. I still have it.”
From that small seed, the collection grew to become a huge – nearly unmanageable – herd that has long outgrown its corral at Osborn’s townhouse in the fashionable Oak Lawn section of Dallas.
That – and the propitious omen of this being the Chinese Year of the Ox – moooooved Osborn to put his herd up for auction.
“I had cows everywhere,” he says. “In my house, I couldn’t move to my left, or to my right, without encountering a cow. It will give me a sense of freedom. Of course, I’ll miss them … but I knew I wanted to get rid of them at a time in my life when I can see them go. I always wanted to see them go right before my very eyes, not after I’m dead and gone.”
Of course, Osborn will be at the auction overseeing his herd dispersal. And, the preview night on the eve of the auction will be another special event, particularly for this man who has been celebrated for his own impeccable and eccentric sense of style.
“In the fashion world the auction has become a fashion event,” he says. “I’ve learned – in New York City – that an auction has become an event to get all dressed up for, converse with people, and be seen … I wanted to oversee it all – to do the best I can with the collection. I’d like to know that the cows are going to be in a good place.”
And, what of the future? Can Derrill Osborn – this modern-day Don Quixote – find contentment in the world without his cows?
“Oh, I’ll always find something, I like mixing the antique with the contemporary … I’m always learning new things. But, I doubt if I have totally gotten away from cows.”
For more details, contact 214-653-3900 or go online at www.dallasauctiongallery.com |
