A QUAINT TREATISE ON "FLEES, AND THE ART A' ARTYFICHALL FLEE MAKING". By An Old Man well known on the Derbyshire streams as a first-class fly-fisher a century ago.

(1875) 1876 2nd issue. 4to (230 x 282mm). Ppxv,91. Two chromo-lithographic plates by James Poole, actual flies and materials in 22 sunken mounts. Dark green pictorial cloth elaborately decorated in black and gilt.

" A Quaint Treatise on "Flees, and the Art a' Artyfichall Flee Making". By an old man well known on the Derbyshire streams as a first-class fly-fisher a century ago; printed from an old ms. never before published, the original spelling and language being retained, with editorial notes and patterns of flies, and samples of the materials for making each fly. By W.H. Aldam, Ardingly, Sussex. With two chromo-lithographic fac-similes from water drawings by James Poole, Esq". Published by John B. Day, 3 Savoy Street, Strand, London. With actual specimens of flies and with dressing materials displayed in 22 sunken mounts on six thick card leaves. This copy unfortunately lacking the fly in mount 12 though all other flies and materials are present and in good condition. Title page printed in red and black, title and text printed within double red rules. The cloth is titled A Quaint Treatise on Flies and Fly Making by an Old Fisherman, edited by W.H. Aldam. The manuscript upon which this book is based appeared at auction in 1999 (and sold for GBP 8,200) revealing the author's name to be Robert Whitehead". Of all Books in whose pages there are inlaid actual Artificial Flies, the best of all for beauty and interest is 'Aldam's Quaint Treatise.' The Flies in it are tied with an excellence that I have never seen beaten. (J.W. Hills)". Most of the flies were tied by Mary Ogden-Smith, a daughter of James Ogden of Cheltenham, and some by David Foster of Ashbourne. The Mayflies which are tied on vertically-eyed Bartlett Limerick hooks are said to have been dressed by James Ogden himself and are likely to be the earliest example of the floating fly extant". (John Simpson in Thomas Thorp Catalogue of Angling Books, A12, 1973). The book, and its author, has been the subject of numerous articles including one by Ian Niall in the December 1964 issue of Creel and one by Kenneth Robson in the April 1994 issue of Salmon, Trout and Sea-Trout.