Three new quivers

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Fri May 02, 2014 2:04 am

I recently made three new quivers in three different styles. One is in the Safavid Persian style based on a miniature. It is made from vegetable tanned calfskin, hand dyed and sewn with thick linen thread. The metal fixtures were bought off the shelf. In the original painting, the arrow separating studs were white, which suggests either bone or ivory, but metal ones are easier to find. The embossing is a simple flower and diagonal trellis design. Other quivers in paintings have much more complex designs, though not the one this is based on. The embossing was suggested by surviving plain leather quivers which usually have some surface decoration.

The base is a glued and sewn in piece of pine with the grain parallel to the arrow shafts. This is so that arrowheads like broad heads (the arrows at the back) will not blunt their points. It also means the arrowheads do not slide around. The base is covered on the outside with a red leather lining. The mouth of the quiver wants to lie flat so it automatically lines the arrows up in a row.

The straps are of deerskin suede. This is a very strong leather that is suitable where thin flexible straps are needed. There is a balancing strap on the inside face (the surface against the archer's body). It runs through several slots and is tied to a folded piece of leather that goes over the belt. Mostly only the attachment points on the quiver are the only survivors of this strap arrangement, but where the complete strap survives it is designed to be able to slide along the the archer's belt. This makes it easy to adjust the angle of the quiver after mounting a horse without having to shorten straps.

The lower edge of the under panel of the outside face of the quiver is not the full length. I made one once based on a surviving quiver in a Polish collection where the panel only extended just past the outermost half panel. This caused problems with broadheads and any arrowhead that was wider than the shaft because they could catch on the edge of the panel when being withdrawn. In this quiver the panel extends to the upper surface of the wooden base insert. It doesn't snag the arrowheads and it makes the quiver stiffer and a better protection for the arrows.

The small crescent shaped slot is to take an unfletched amaji arrow of the type used for close quarters armour-piercing. The upper part of the shaft to the nock on this type of arrow was usually highly decorated. I have several originals, but haven't made any yet. Aside for qighaj shooting, there is little use for them in the modern world.

The title of the original painting is "Goshtasp slays the dragon of Mount Saqila" and is from the so-called Houghton Shahnama or the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp. It was commenced about 1522 and finished in the 1530s as a present from the Safavid Shah Ismail to his son and heir Tahmasp. The painting is on 402 recto. It has been published in Stuart Cay Welch's Royal Persian manuscripts, 1976, Thames and Hudson, London. Plate 9 page 51.

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Fri May 02, 2014 5:09 am

This quiver is in the Turkish style, but has the earlier feature of having the main body made out of a folded piece of leather. This construction can be seen in the earliest of the open quivers in Song and Jin paintings and also the excavated example from Mongolia. The constructional style survived in China until the end of the Qing dynasty.

In Turkey surviving examples are rarer which might be because, while it is less labour intensive to make, it requires larger pieces of unmarked leather. More quivers can be cut out of a given piece of leather if they have the inside and outside pieces cut separately.

The main difference in outside pocket design between Turkish and Persian quivers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries seems to be the shrinking size of the pocket in relation to the length of the quiver in Turkey as time went on. This may only be an accident of survival. Another feature that changed with time is that the two leading edge suspension points became closer together in later quivers.

Dying leather yellow was very popular in the Middle East and did not have the connotations that it did in late Imperial China. The quiver is sewn with black linen thread and has a glued and sewn in leather covered base. The base is red.

I have no direct evidence of the spacers on the outside of the quiver. Indirectly there is the fact they were used in Safavid Iran and some of the quiver covers had evenly spaced holes suggesting the arrows normally were separated. However, some designs of pocket did not require any separators since the trailing edge of the pocket provide a stop for the arrows. Others had a ring mounted which could stop arrows sliding past it and could hold a special arrow if necessary. I add the spacers to this type of quiver because the short pocket is not so good at keeping the arrows upright.

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Fri May 02, 2014 5:47 am

This quiver is based on a Crimean Tatar quiver associated with one of the Tatar Khans.

It has a single piece wooden frame on three sides. The leather is glued to the frame and then stitched to the red leather covering the edges of the frame. Sometimes in this type of quiver the leather is riveted or nailed to the frame as well. There are two straps running longitudinally from leading edge to trailing edge inside the mouth of the quiver. There are three transverse straps running through the other two from inside face to outside face of the quiver inside the mouth. This creates three rows of four compartments to separate the arrows internally.

I have made an extra ring to take a balancing strap on the inside face of the quiver similar to those on Manchu quivers. In reality these quivers may have had sewn on leather strap retainers like Tibetan quivers and very early Ottoman quivers.

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Fri May 02, 2014 5:52 am

This is the front side of the quiver. The stitching is artificial sinew. If I had that much real sinew thread, I would be making bowstrings from it.

KenH · Post by **KenH** » Fri May 02, 2014 10:53 am

Beautiful work, Bede! Nicely done.

I've got to try my hand at a gorytos to go with my Scythian style bow.

Zack · Post by **Zack** » Fri May 02, 2014 11:10 am

Beautiful work as always.

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Fri May 02, 2014 12:14 pm

Hand sewing can take a long time. The Crimean Tatar quiver took almost 8 hours. However, I am pleased with the result. I am sure I can do better next time. Thanks for the compliments. I learned quite a lot from these quivers since each had a different construction. The thicker thread was harder to use because of the bigger needles, but the effect is much better.

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Sat May 03, 2014 1:48 am

Here are some more details on the Tatar quiver from the book Stara bron w polskich zbiorach,by Zdzislaw Zygulski. The translation is mine and may be inaccurate.

b. A quiver of arrows (inv. 24267x).

Purchased in 1917 from Anthony J. Strzałeckiego. The brown goat skin, the wooden frame, sewn with linen thread.

Bevelled grille opening secured leather quiver with two longitudinal and three transverse straps; grid was used to hold the arrows.

With the quiver, there was a leather belt with an iron hook at one end and with holes at the other end.

I had no suitable brown dye and my goatskin was too thin for quiver construction so I made it from calfskin and dyed it black since that colour is popular in earlier and later Tatar quivers. I did once examine a Manchu quiver of the Qianlong Emperor which was made from de-haired leopard skin that was naturally black. The folded body type quivers are particularly suited to be cut from a goat or antelope skin since the middle of the back can form the fold making it much stronger.

My quiver is shorter since I build quivers to match the arrows they are intended for so that I can maintain the correct proportions. Usually I use 73 cm arrows, while the general Tatar arrows are in the range of 82 to 85 cm.

Markus · Post by **Markus** » Sat May 03, 2014 8:36 pm

I guess it's OK.

Markus · Post by **Markus** » Sun May 04, 2014 7:01 am

Bede, how about posting the pictures on the SAA forum also, sure could use some action over there. Outstanding work. Markus.

Bj?rn Sofeit · Post by **Bj?rn Sofeit** » Sun May 04, 2014 7:55 am

I was hoping that you'd post your new quivers soon. Incidentally, I collected some images from Shah Tahmasp's Shahnama in the metmuseum a week ago for bows and quivers

Great quivers. Did you harden them with wax like you recommended to me?

Btw Markus, what's SAA?

Markus · Post by **Markus** » Sun May 04, 2014 8:04 am

Bj?rn, here you go.
http://www.societyofarcher-antiquaries.org/index.htm
I hope it is OK to link to another site?

Bj?rn Sofeit · Post by **Bj?rn Sofeit** » Sun May 04, 2014 8:47 am

Ow, I didn't make the connection >_<

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Mon May 05, 2014 6:34 am

I was using 3-4mm leather so after it was dyed it was quite stiff by itself. On the Turkish and Persian quivers, the areas that had three layers of leather are very stiff. The Tatar quiver can be made with thinner leather because if the wooden frame, but I had some of the thicker stuff left over and did not want to waste it.

The Houghton Shahnama pages in the MMA are wonderful sources of equipment design. However, some artists had less interest in the proportions of their objects and some odd shapes result.

The quivers with no outside-face pockets are interesting since they are easier to cut out and sew, but they make up for that by having elaborately decorated surfaces. It you were making one, covering it in brocade or embroidered cloth would be a good idea. They are doing some beautiful work in Turkey that way.

Jake Levi · Post by **Jake Levi** » Tue May 06, 2014 1:57 pm

Beautiful craftsmanship, thanks for sharing.

Three new quivers

Three new quivers

Quivers