Description
Early printing of Favorite Flies and Their Histories by Mary Orvis Marbury.
Octavo, viii, [2], 522pp. Two tone green cloth, title and illustrations stamped in gilt on spine and front cover. Top edge gilt. Early printing with 1892 publication date on copyright page and no date on title page. Solid binding, spine ends and corners lightly bumped. Mild toning to text pages and endpapers, occasional pencil notations and unopened pages, a few short closed tears. Complete with 32 color lithographs of flies, plus 14 additional black and white plates, including frontispiece, all with tissue covers. Lithographs are vivid and bright, lower corner of Plate BB creased with a short closed tear. Gift inscription with calling card “Compliments” of William J. Cassard affixed to front free endpaper. Several clipped illustrations on fly fishing pasted intermittently throughout volume, but not obstructing text. In a protective cloth jacket with remnants of a printed title label on spine. (Heckscher 1285) A nice example of this classic work on fly-tying and fly patterns.
William J. Cassard (1851-1926) of New York City was a collector of fishing and hunting items. In Favorite Flies and Their Histories, Cassard is described as “the happy owner of undoubtedly the finest collection in the United States of everything in the shape of modern fishing implements… His snuggery is a fascinating place to any one loving hunting and fishing. One corner is devoted to pictures of flies and fish, and shelves filled with angling-books; another is occupied by rods of every description; a third to a case of reels; the fourth to guns…” (page 97) Having a large collection of flies, Cassard also designed several patterns himself, including the Cassard, Matador and Knight Templar, all of which are illustrated in Marbury’s book. In 1923, Cassard’s collection of angling and sporting books was sold by Anderson Galleries of New York.
