Indian thumbrings

JJ · Post by JJ » Wed Apr 06, 2011 7:39 am

I bought these about 15 years ago as shooting rings from India. The guy, an english antique dealer, also had bows for sale. A friend bought a nice Crab bow from him...

They seem to be made of bronze. They are nearly circular in cross section, the lip is straight and there is a proximal bulge that should keep the string from slipping onto the skin. They are too small for me to use, but seem functional to me. I never saw rings like that on Atarn, so I thought I post them.

Has anybody any further references?

JJ

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 10:57 am

JJ,
I am almost certain that they are not archers rings. I have examined quite a few of these. They seem to be a fitting for something like a hookah or a water bottle (matara). The location of the holes is inappropriate for an archer's ring since they would attach the lining at the wrong end of the ring. This would be also true if they were finger stalls.

JJ · Post by JJ » Wed Apr 06, 2011 4:49 pm

Haha, that makes sense... For anti water dropping...

I couldn?t find informatin on matara bottles, how do they look like?

JJ

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Thu Apr 07, 2011 1:07 am

JJ,
Here is a picture of a matara in the Topkapi Museum http://www.ee.bilkent.edu.tr/~history/topkapi.html. This one is covered with gold and jewels, but they were usually made of leather with fine leather appliqu? and embroidery. They usually have a spout on one side and I speculate that these rings were used in one form of the objects. Only the beautiful ones are published and I wonder if there were less expertly made ones with cruder fittings.