T E Pritt's Grannon or Greentail

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Bazzer69
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Location: Redding California

Re: T E Pritt's Grannon or Greentail

Post by Bazzer69 » Sun Nov 25, 2018 10:36 pm

PhilA wrote: Sat Nov 24, 2018 12:12 pm
Greenwell wrote: Fri Nov 23, 2018 4:00 pm I took a look at my copy of Aldam's "Quaint Treatise" and it is interesting to see that the early Halls eyed hooks that the two Ogdan mayflies are dressed on are slightly heavier in the wire than the sneck bend hooks the other flies in the book are on.
John,
You own a copy of Flees and the Art a Artyfichall Flee Making? Nice! That's about the the rarest of the rare for fly fishing books. That is, unless you also own an original Dame Juliana manuscript! --Phil
There’s a copy for sale in the U.K. at $4,200. Does that make my stone copy of the Ten Commandments autographed by someone call Solomon valuable? I got it from a gentleman in Cairo who said he was my affendi and I could have it for twenty quid!
Love both fly fishing and fly tying, been doing it for a while
But not much good at either
Greenwell
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Re: T E Pritt's Grannon or Greentail

Post by Greenwell » Tue Nov 27, 2018 10:26 pm

If the chiseling on the Tablets is clear and legible then you did OK! My personal copy is signed "C. Heston." I bet I got it form that same Cairo bookseller...........bit of a problem to lug around though.

Actually, acquiring a copy of Aldam was something I had aspired to for most of my life, ever since I first knew what it was and how important it is in fly fishing/tying history. I had been offered several copies over the years but never had the wherewithal to pick one up. Then two years ago I lucked into a very nice one at a bargain price so couldn't let it get by me. And I've never regretted the purchase.

I would like to discuss fly tying books here on the Forum. I wonder if there would be any interest.
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PhilA
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Re: T E Pritt's Grannon or Greentail

Post by PhilA » Wed Nov 28, 2018 12:28 am

Greenwell wrote: Tue Nov 27, 2018 10:26 pmI would like to discuss fly tying books here on the Forum. I wonder if there would be any interest.
John,
I would definitely be interested in discussing fly tying books. Acquiring and reading such books has been a passion -- some might say obsession -- of mine for many years.

By the way, I'm now back home. The reference for Paul Schullery's account of the history of eyed hooks and why they were slow to catch on is chapter six of Fly-Fishing Secrets of the Ancients (2009). ("This Most Salutary Reform; The Slow Rise of the Eyed Hook"). --Phil
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PhilA
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Re: T E Pritt's Grannon or Greentail

Post by PhilA » Wed Nov 28, 2018 2:42 pm

John,
I re-read Schullery's history of the eyed hook last night. Aldam's A Quaint Treatise figures quite prominently! Schullery references Tony Hayter (F.M. Halford and the Dry-Fly Revolution), who wrote that Hall's eyed hooks were inspired by two especially finely made hooks contained in A Quaint Treatise. Here is the relevant paragraph:

Image

Thus, A Quaint Treatise prompted Hall and Bankart to get serious about developing small fine-wire eyed hooks. Hall's oft-quoted patent was in 1879, the same year his hooks (made by Hutchinson of Kendal) were offered for sale. Since A Quaint Treatise was published in 1876, those two eyed hooks in your book are presumably Bartleet hooks.

Chapter 5 of the book recounts the rise and fall of horsehair and silkworm gut as leader material. A theme running through both the leader and hook chapters is that fly anglers are resistant to change, even when in hindsight the change is very beneficial.

Cheers,
Phil
wsbailey
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Re: T E Pritt's Grannon or Greentail

Post by wsbailey » Wed Nov 28, 2018 3:03 pm

Here is a discussion about gut and horse hair lines from 1853.

https://books.google.com/books?id=y90RA ... ut&f=false

The Complete Angler speaks of silk gut and Indian grass lines.
Bazzer69
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Location: Redding California

Re: T E Pritt's Grannon or Greentail

Post by Bazzer69 » Fri Nov 30, 2018 1:08 am

I for one would be delighted for a thread or subforum devoted to books!
Love both fly fishing and fly tying, been doing it for a while
But not much good at either
Greenwell
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Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2011 9:05 pm

Re: T E Pritt's Grannon or Greentail

Post by Greenwell » Fri Nov 30, 2018 10:44 am

Phil,
The whole eyed hook discussion has me delving into many of my books to see what I can come up with. I pulled Schullery's book off the shelf and instead of doing the prudent thing and just looking at the chapter on eyed hooks I started to read it from chapter 1. Now that's a book that has a lot of footnotes and I'm a guy who likes footnotes so I didn't get very far because every footnote sent me to the book cases to see if I had the title he had cited. What fun!
I also found some interesting material on early hooks in Jack Heddon's Scotcher Notes which I will share later.
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