Author: RICHARD BOWDEN-SMITH.
Title: Fly Fishing in Salt and Fresh Water.
Description: London. John Van Voorst, 1, Paternoster Row. 1851. First edition. [v], vi-viii, [1] 2-74 pp. including appendix. Six plates, with five brilliantly hand-coloured showing flies designed to imitate bait-fish and to attract Sea Trout, Pollack, Pike, Salmon, Trout and Grayling; they’re "full size," as the author describes them. There’s a black and white plate showing how to arrange terminal tackle. The book is notable because it’s the first work published on fly fishing in salt water. Doesn’t that send shivers up your spine? Over the course of 170 years, though, the date reference kind of loses its zing. The plates were illustrated by the firm of Paul Jerrard Litho III Fleet Street. Bowden-Smith describes fly fishing in the coastal waters of Ireland, England, Norway, and Nova Scotia. He gives detailed instructions on how to dress each fly pattern and the materials needed to accomplish it. And if you're so inclined, there’s precise instructions on how to dye some of the materials. The book is bound in contemporary brown morocco and marbled boards with gilt titles on the spine. There is light rubbing to the binding. The text and the plates are fine and clean. A very good book.

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