Floating flies and how to dress them: a treatise on the most modern methods of dressing artificial flies for trout and grayling..

London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1886. [8], 136, [2], 32pp. With a half-title, nine coloured engraved plates, numerous engraved illustrations in the text, a tipped-in errata slip, and a terminal publisher's advertisement catalogue. Original Publisher's green cloth, ruled and lettered in gilt, T.E.G. A trifle rubbed. Very occasional light spotting. Armorial bookplate of Charles R. C. Hibbert and later book-label of F. Lucy, Uxbridge, to FEP. Inked inscription to head of half-title: 'C. R. C. Hibbert gave this Book to Henry Williamson / Shallowford 1932'. The first trade edition, limited to 500 copies, of angler Fredric Michael Halford’s (1844-1914) first published work, a monograph rationalizing the dressings of flies already available, widely considered to be one of the most accomplished artificial fly tying manuals ever produced. A large-paper edition, printed on Dutch hand- made paper, limited to 100 copies for England and 50 for America, and priced at 30 shillings, was exhausted prior to publication. Henry Williamson (1895-1977), writer of fiction and numerous articles on natural history and the English countryside, predominantly remembered as the author of Tarka the Otter (1927). This copy was presented to him by his father-in-law. . First trade edition. 8vo.