William Blacker

We have something special to share with you today.

Just in from Germany a scarce and highly desirable early multi-section split cane valise rod by William Blacker of 54 Dean Street, Soho, London, dating to the early Victorian period, circa 1840–1845.

William Blacker (1814 to 1888) was a notable London-based fishing tackle dealer and fly dresser in the 19th century. He is most remembered for his influence on fly fishing and fly tying through both his tackle business and his published work being especially remembered for his influential 1842 publication Blacker’s Art of Fly Making. He was however also an accomplished tackle dealer and rod supplier during the formative period of split cane (earlier described as glued bamboo). Multi-piece valise rods of this early date represent an important transitional form between solid wood constructions (greenheart and lancewood) and the later fully developed hexagonal split bamboo rods of the late 19th century.

Valise rods by Blacker are especially rare and Dave Townsend only remembers seeing one other and that was owned by his vintage tackle enthusiast father and later sold via Angling Auctions.

The butt section bears in engraved lettering. “William Blacker, 54 Dean Street, Soho” dating the rod circa 1840. (2 years after Thomas Turner started his gunsmiths).

Constructed in nine sections of approximately 16 inches each, together with a spare tip, the rod was designed for compact carriage in a travelling valise — an increasingly popular format among metropolitan and touring anglers of the 1840s. When assembled, the rod forms an elegant light salmon or heavy trout rod of refined proportions typical of Blacker’s period.

I have taken a shine to this rod so it may be several weeks before it is up for sale. If you do have a special interest please let Dave know.

It’s difficult to mention Blacker without further reference to his book and the fact this was sold under the name of Catechism of Fly Making, which is closely associated with Blacker’s methods and considered an important part of early fly-tying literature. A copy was sold at Bonhams for £187,500 not surprisingly a world record for the most expensive angling book ever sold. It’s not so easy to justify this price for a book but it did include over 70 mounted fly-tying specimens of original mounted flies and patterns and is highly collectible and unique.

Interestingly we are about to list a copy of Blacker’s Art of Angling on our site but unfortunately virtually all of the flies are missing and it has a much more modest value. Look out for this plus a large number of other books we have from the Peter Wheat collection. Many of these are signed by either the authors or by Peter. Many will be of special interest to Carp and Barbel anglers.

For those of you especially interested in Blacker’s writing we have copy of an article published in Classic Angling in 2017 that Keith Elliott has kindly given us permission to share with you.