Coffee Table Book of: Archery (Paperback)

Description

Coffee Table Book of: Archery is a large-format coffee table book of archery, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: longbows and recurve bows, arrows and their feathers, quivers and leather guards for the hand and arm, straw targets and their rings, the tools of the bow maker, archers anonymous in plain clothes, and ranges, woods and meadows from dawn to dusk.

Then quivers, gloves and rings: the old earth butts at evening, a ground quiver in short grass, a flat leather quiver on autumn leaves, a short composite bow, a shooting glove, two archers walking to the target, a horn thumb ring, a dark yew in a snowy field, an unstrung longbow on two pegs with its string, a steel point and a nock seated on the string.

Then the range and the bowyer: a full draw in silhouette at sunset, dew on a web strung across a target stand, an archer drawing arrows from the target, a storm gathering over a meadow, new arrows standing in a rack, split staves under the beams of an old barn and an archer of earlier days at full draw before an earth mound.

Then the walk and the weather: an archer walking a meadow path with an unstrung bow, heavy dew on long grass at sunrise, mist along a river meadow, rain beaded on a bowstring, an archer nocking an arrow at the shooting line, an arrow in flight over a meadow and fallen copper beech leaves.

Toward the end: a summer meadow of poppies and daisies, a spokeshave on a half-shaped stave, evening sun through a pine wood, lichen and moss on an old stand, a birch in autumn gold, stars over a lone oak and snow falling over a meadow at dusk.

Short notes run through the book, on bows, strings and arrows, the target and the range, the craft of the bow maker, and the long history of the bow: a longbow is a tall bow with narrow limbs, made for a long draw, morning dew silvers the range before the first arrows are shot, in clout archery, arrows are shot at a small flag in the ground some 165 metres away, and the butts were practice grounds with mounds of earth for targets.

Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a paperback.