French Country · Encyclopedia · In the Fields
Sheaf-binding peg
A long carved wooden spindle used in the Pyrenees to tighten the straw tie around bundles of wheat after harvest. Smooth with wear, some are engraved with their owner's initials.
French: « liadou » · Pyrenees · carved wood
At a glance
- Region: Pyrenees
- Material: carved wood
- Use: tightening the straw band on a sheaf
- Personal touch: owner's initials on some examples
What it is
After the harvest, sheaves were bound with a band of twisted straw. The liadou, a long tapered spindle, helped pull that band tight and tuck in the ends so the sheaf held firm.
Its name evokes binding (lier in French).
Made in winter, used in summer
The book suggests that Pyrenean farmers carved these pegs during the long mountain winters for the coming harvest. Pure in form and polished by use, they are sometimes marked with initials, a sign that each harvester kept his own tool.
Collecting and displaying it
Look for a smooth, hand-polished surface and a slight curve or flattening that shows real use. Carved initials or dates add interest.
Laid in a shallow bowl or grouped on a wall, liadous show how even the simplest tool carried care and identity.
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.