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Pitt Rivers Museum

1954.9.27

Animal hide bow case and quiver. [BS [OPS move] 13/9/2017]


1954.9.27

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

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Collection type
Object
Description
Animal hide bow case and quiver. [BS [OPS move] 13/9/2017]
Long description
Animal hide bow case and quiver. The bow case is sub rectangular and tapers towards the closed end which terminates with a fringe of varying thicknesses. At the open end of the bow case there is a partial band of black, red and white quillwork decoration at top of quiver and a hide fringe below this. The quiver is much longer and thinner than the bow case and the terminal fringe features cut openwork strips of hide. [BS [OPS move] 13/9/2017]
Cultural groups
Lenape
Person
Field collector Edmund Hope Verney
PRM source Irene Marguerite Beasley
Date / Period
Date made: Circa by 1870
Date collected
circa 1860 - 1870
Acquisition information
Donated: 1954
Materials and processes
Material Quill, Material Animal Skin, Material Pigment, Material Porcupine Quill Animal, Process Quillwork, Process Cutwork, Process Stitched, Process Dyed
Dimensions
Width: max 192 mm, Depth: max 60 mm, Length: max 1470 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1954.9.27 Other numbers: Beasley no. 11.6.1931
Research and responses

Beasley numbers probably refer to the date on which Beasley acquired an object. [CW 20/7/2000]

Ray Gonyea, Curator of Native American Art & Culture at the Eiteljorg Museum Indianapolis USA, examined this object in May 2006 and noted down the following information. The 'quilled panel on top of arrow case is quilled wrapped strips of birchbark - image of 2 female deer w/tails raised in "danger" sign - design may be "uses" oriented" - faint image of Thunderbird at mouth of the bow case - has provision for wood rod insert to hold case straight.' [see related documents file]. [ZM 30/05/2006]

Verney served on Grappler 1862-65, entirely on British Columbia coast, so did not field collect this if indeed it is Delaware. See http://www.pdavis.nl/Verney.php [Laura Peers, 07/09/2007]

Associated publications
Referred to on page 52 of The American Civil War in the Indian Territory by John D Spencer (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2006). Describing Native American weapons generally the author states: 'Quivers were deerskin , sometimes with the hair on, with an attached bow case. A surviving Delaware quiver is fringed and trimmed with red cloth and a band of quillwork around the top'. No source or accession number is given for the Delaware quiver but the description is of 1954.9.27, which was examined in June 2005 during a research visit by John D. Spencer. In a letter from Spencer dated 29 August 2006 1954.9.27 is confirmed as the source of the reference on page 52 of the publication. (See related documents file for the letter.) [ZM 11/09/2006]

Search terms: Archery Weapon, Bow Case, Quiver