French Country · Encyclopedia · In the Fields
Ox yoke
A carved wooden yoke for a pair of draft animals. This small, finely worked example comes from the Alpes-Maritimes, where the cattle were small too, and is made of poplar, a supple wood that does not hurt the animal.
French: joug · Alpes-Maritimes · poplar
At a glance
- Region of the example shown: Alpes-Maritimes
- Material: poplar
- Clue to origin: the small size, matching small local cattle
- Status: rescued from oblivion by collectors
What it is
A yoke joins two oxen so they pull together. In much of southern France the yoke was a head or horn yoke, a carved beam shaped to sit on the animals' heads or against their horns and lashed in place with leather straps.
The wood is hollowed where it meets each animal and often carved with simple ornament.
Reading its origin
The book explains how such yokes are attributed to the Alpes-Maritimes: because the draft cattle there were small, the yokes are small as well. Poplar was chosen because it is light and supple and does not wound the animal.
Larger yokes come from regions with larger breeds, and their carving differs from one valley to another.
Collecting and displaying it
Look for a well-defined shape, old leather or wear marks where straps passed, and decoration cut with a knife. Cracks along the grain are common.
A yoke displays beautifully over a fireplace, a doorway or a long sideboard; it is long, so plan a wall that can carry its full width.
Source: Les Trésors de France: vieux métiers et objets d'autrefois (Éditions Rustica, Détours en France collection, 1995), pp. 108–111, with general background on the object. The book was published in 1995, so workshops, people and figures are described as they were then. Regional names and dates are given as the book records them; a style or a region of origin does not by itself date an individual piece.