Oxen Gallery

Scoppio del Carro - Florence, Italy

Florence - Scoppio del Carro. In Florence (Tuscany, Italy), Easter is celebrated with the Scoppio del Carro, explosion of the cart. A huge, decorated wagon is dragged through Florence by white oxen until it reaches the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence's historic centre. Following mass, the Archbishop sends a dove-shaped rocket into the cart, igniting the fireworks held inside

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

Visit to Madeira - A Basket Bullock Carro

Black and white lantern slide of three women seated in a ox drawn sledge (carro de bois) - Visit to Madeira. Part of Box 125 - Madeira. Boswell Collection. In 1848 Major Buckley invented the bullock cart (carro de bois), a sled with a canopy and basket chairs, pulled by strong young oxen. The sled runners went more easily over Funchals sharp cobbles than did wheels. The bullock carts were banned in the 1980s because they held up traffic. Date: circa 1890s

© The Boswell Collection, Bexley Heritage Trust / Mary Evans

Egyptian wheat and grape agriculture

Egyptian agriculture: priest of Osiris with sceptre 1, following a man with plow behind two yoked oxen 2, man sowing seed 3 from a box 4, men harvesting wheat with a scythe 5,6, men carrying produce 7,8,9 and men pressing grapes while holding on to ropes hanging from a horizontal pole 10. Handcoloured copperplate engraving by Andrea Bernieri from Giulio Ferrrario's Costumes Antique and Modern of All Peoples (Il Costume Antico e Moderno di Tutti i Popoli), Florence, 1843. Date:

© Florilegius/Mary Evans