Manchu quiver

[Peter Dekker]

Hi guys! Thanks for the endorsements.

This is a very interesting quiver. It is of a type worn primarily in the capital for court assemblies. Imperial guards had several sets, with a different color for each occasion. These imperial guard bow cases and quivers all had gilt mounts, and the piece was either black leather or a color of silk velvet.

The tooled leather and brass mounts on this set indicate it was not an imperial guardsman's quiver, but a soldier's piece. But not just any soldier had quivers quite this fancy, he must have been among the troops that participated in military parades.

The decor is interesting in that it diverges from the norm somewhat. Most imperial guard and soldier's quivers of this type have exactly the same mounts, with the difference that the imperial guard pieces have gilt mounts. I've found the exact same imperfections on many of them, indicating they were all from the same mold.

This piece is decorated not with the usual design of dragons among pierced work, but with archaic kui dragons that were inspired on the work on ancient Chinese bronze vessels that were popular among the elites. Many late Qing saber mounts and belt hooks were decorated in exactly this manner, but it's the first time I see it on a quiver like this.

Great piece, also nice to see the belt is en suite.

As for the cross straps, they are first seen on Persian quivers and probably made their way to Tibet and Mongolia through the silk road / Mongol expansion. Qianlong probably was inspired by the Tibetans, as the guards on some instances also wore Tibetan style swords.

Peter