Turkish quiver, Grayson Collection

Kviljo · Post by **Kviljo** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 6:53 pm

I've been wanting to make a similar quiver like this:

It is said to be 68,5cm long, and 4,4cm wide at top. From the pictures in the book "Traditional archery from six continents", I find it quite difficult to see how it can be 4,4cm at the widest part.

What I've done is using the 68,5cm as set, and using the photos to figure out the other dimentions. Somehow I can not find any measurements that fits the 4,4cm.

Perhaps someone here has seen or handeled the quiver, and knows if the measurement really is valid and from where on the quiver it was taken?

In the book it is also described as having a hinged lid, but I can't figure out how the hinge is made, as it is not visible on the pictures I think.

jsachers · Post by **jsachers** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 10:09 pm

Kviljo ??if you go to this site http://database.coas.missouri.edu/fmi/i ... loadframes you can enter the item or catalogue number and find the related data sheet of any object within the Grayson collection.

The description of the quiver there reads:
"Four-sided closed form wooden quiver for flight arrows. Painted with a gold floral design. Metal handle with red ribbon on back of case. Case tapers toward bottom. Hinged lid (hinge is broken). Ivory and ebony inlay around bottom. Inside there is a baffle of 11 cm with holes to support 36 flight arrows. Total quiver length is 68.5 cm long, 8 cm X 12.5 cm at top and 3.5 cm X 7.5 cm at bottom. Inscription inside lid is a charm against woodworm (translated by Bede Dwyer 10/2004)"

Hope this helps. Best wishes,
Jan

Kviljo · Post by **Kviljo** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 11:13 pm

Fantastic!

Thanks!

jsachers · Post by **jsachers** » Tue Feb 15, 2011 9:13 pm

I wish every museum collection was as well documented as Charles Grayson's!

jack farrell · Post by **jack farrell** » Wed Feb 16, 2011 12:38 am

This kind of arrow box is more common than one would think. There is one or two in the Military Museum in Seoul. Another is illustrated in Indian Archery by Pant. A six or eight sided version was published in Uzbekistan, Heirs to the Silk Road. When I was in Bukhara I took a lot of pictures of it. I was struck by how similar it was to the Korean ones.

To me, this is evidence for sport shooting, as it is not a quiver but a box to store arrows, a gentlemanly sporting device like a golf bag. In the Korean instance, I assume the purpose was for target arrows.

Stephen Selby · Post by **Stephen Selby** » Wed Feb 16, 2011 1:26 am

I have a Mongolian one; but it is tapered cylindrical, not rectangular. It is made of lacquered papier mache'.

Ashbow · Post by **Ashbow** » Wed Feb 16, 2011 5:50 pm

Closed quivers like this, commonly tubular, were used for protecting sporting arrows in Europe too, where the word quiver actually applied to what we now would call an arrow case/tube.

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 1:13 pm

I have examined this arrow case (from this you can see I agree with the comments above), and it might interest you to know that the arrow spacer had 4 x 9 holes to make up the 36. The damaged hinge was leather in the Grayson Turkish example. One of the cases had an invocation to wormwood, suggesting this was used to stop insect damage to the arrows.

The Grayson collection also has a octagonal Persian style arrow case. In a miniature from Iran in 1549, there is one shown with the lid fallen off and the spacer visible. Perspective is a problem though and the spacer is shown at the mouth of the case. Of course the painting may show a case with the bottom cut off since the arrows are coming out point first. In the painting the case has six sides and there are 7 holes in the spacer. This is clearly a simplification, but shows the artist had at least seen one of these cases.

Kviljo · Post by **Kviljo** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 11:33 pm

Brilliant! I'll implement that. Hoping to glue the pieces together soon. Pictures to come.

Gokmen · Post by **Gokmen** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 3:12 pm

Please look also at pictures of Military Museum in Istanbul. There you have more of these wooden quivers. So more choice and ideas for design on wood and sizes as well.

If you held an original Ottoman pishrev flight arrow in your hand you will understand why they made wooden boxes.

cheers

Gokmen

Kviljo · Post by **Kviljo** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 11:17 pm

Thanks! These seem to have been quite commonly used.

I guess keeping the arrows straight would be the most important factor for not having them in a regular leather quiver.

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 12:02 pm

Gokmen is right. The arrows are very susceptible to bending and distorting. Ottoman arrow cases are a very good at preserving the integrity of the arrows.

Kviljo · Post by **Kviljo** » Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:48 pm

I've been working on this quiver on and off, well basically only off, for one and a half year now. It's made from four 3mm pine "boards", with an oak bottom and several (about 20) small reinforcing cross pieces of maple on the inside, so it is very lightweight. The lid is made from maple, though I have yet to attach it to the leather hinge. I might substitute the clip for some leather, if I don't come across something that looks similar.

I see that I might have overdone the brightness of the colour, hehe, but I am hoping that a thick layer of dark shellac will reduce the tone and brightness somewhat more towards the original.

The paint is some kind of artists oil colour, which takes almost two weeks to dry. Second layer now. I will try to do a little paint job on it with fake sheet gold. I hope the shellack sticks to the oily paint...