THE "LAND AND WATER" SALMON FLIES 1886 - 1902. By George M. Kelson. Introduction by R.J.W. Coleby.

# 1993 1st edition. 8vo (160 x 240mm). Pp128. Colour plates of flies. Introduction by R.J.W. Coleby. Quarter bound in black bonded leather over black cloth, gilt FFCL motif to upper board, decorative end-papers, top edge gilt, silk marker ribbon, spine titled in gilt. Black cloth-bound slipcase. Edition limited to 1000 copies.

# Originally published between 1886 and 1888, as 53 cards (in sets of 16 + 16 + 21, which were styled First Series, Second Series and Third Series), issued by the magazine Land and Water, to accompany Kelson's articles. The cards, each carrying a chromolithograph illustration of a salmon fly together with its origin and dressing, were to be pasted into blank spaces left in the magazine for that purpose. Then in 1902, six years after the appearance of Kelson's book The Salmon Fly: How to dress and how to use it, a further group of 32 patterns were offered en bloc in Land and Water. This latter group might justifiably be regarded as a supplement to The Salmon Fly. All 85 patterns are illustrated in superb full colour with detailed descriptions of their dressings. Thirty-nine of these patterns are not illustrated in The Salmon Fly of 1895, and eleven of them are not even mentioned in the book's text. It was not until 1988 that angling bookseller, R.J.W. Coleby, came across a scrapbook of them compiled by Johnny Mercer, fly dresser to Forrest of Kelso. At first Coleby did not appreciate what he had found, and it was only after much consultation with the leading collectors of the day that he pieced together this story. He says in his scholarly and informative introduction, "No complete collection of all 85 flies has yet come to my notice." Entirely passed over in subsequent literature because researchers and writers were simply not aware of their existence, this is the first time that the Land And Water Flies have appeared together in book form.