Antique Fishing Priests

A collection of wood turners’ art in angling across three centuries by Dave Watson.

Each copy of this extended Second Edition is individually signed and numbered, from 001-100.

This book illustrates the elevation of the humble priest, designed to allow the sporting angler to dispatch his catch humanely, from a utility object to an art form by the wood turners’ craft, in a remarkable collection of ninety seven unique priests.

Materials used include boxwood, laburnum, yew wood, rose wood, walnut, ash, ebony, chestnut and lime woods; elephant, walrus and narwhal ivory; bone and whalebone.

Even rarer than turned priests of this quality it seems, are references in print. We note 19th century Piccadilly maker, J Bernard advertised as “J Bernard Fishing Tackle Maker & Turner”.

From the Narwhal ivory and walnut (cover) priest sporting the ‘V (crown) R’ Royal cipher, to the earliest - dated 1718 - and the others from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries - all are the result of refining the collection over four decades.

Code: 50800