LIST OF WHARFEDALE FLIES: JOHN SWARBRICK'S DRESSINGS 1807.

(1807) 2009 1st edition thus. A miniature book. 60 x 65mm (2.4 x 2.6"). Pp61 + errata. Two actual flies laid in. Colour fold-out of flies. Marbled boards.

Swarbrick was a farmer from Austby, near Ilkley on the River Wharfe. His list is "the earliest one known which gives detailed dressings for the flies and the times of the year for which they are most suitable..." (Magee). Although written in 1807, it did not appear in print until 1907, when Ellis Beanlands published it together with J.W. Sagar's list of 1890. This edition lists only Swarbrick's dressings, together with modern substitutes. It is illustrated with woodcuts by Joan Hassall and with fold-out colour plates of flies. Introduction by Leslie Magee. Pages not numbered (61 pp + 30 colour plates + 1 extra errata plate.) This is a miniature book which has been printed letterpress by Simon Lawrence at the Fleece Press, using 1950's hand-made paper. Ken and Joyce Smith have bound the book in "hand-marbled paper, made by Compton Marbling in 1995," with a fly mounted inside each board, front and back. These flies are a Large March Brown (number 5) and a Small Black Flie (number 26), and have been tied by Stuart Bowdin of Pendle Flies. The book is issued in a cloth-covered slip-case. 125 copies have been issued under each imprint, with five more each for private distribution. This totals only 260 copies. We also have copies of the de luxe edition in stock.