Shadows and Reflections

My Shadows and Reflections of the year 2014 are published to-day as part of the annual series on Caught by the River.

A Christmas Present from a Christmas Past

The Impromptu Great Exhibition known as Advent-in-Arcadia concludes with a Christmas present from a Christmas past - a gilded or laminated brass crank wind Trout Reel of almost 150 years in age hand engraved with the legend 'Chas. Farlow Maker 191 Strand London'.  For immediate sale in the place you walk past at your folly also known as the Shop Window of my website.  

For the Pocket of a Gentleman

Advent-in-Arcadia carries on with the immediate but not hurried sale of an exquisite dark red leather fly wallet containing a small number of original flies.  Some damage and wear consistent with its age but it retains great character and is for purchase by someone in need of something of taste from the ghostly back room of a Victorian tackle shop which masquerades as my website. 

Black Japanned Minnow Box

Bought from a gentleman dealer at a sale Way Beyond the Outskirts of Pandemonium and for immediate sale and despatch under the legend 'Just in Sir!' an unusual and rare Black Japanned Devon Minnow Box dressed with Devons of a varying age - each one hung on an internal spike.

Phantoms of the Equinox

Bought when the days were at their longest and for immediate sale before the sun sets through the door  at the back of my wardrobe known as my website 3 Phantom Baits dating from the late 19th or early 20th Century.  

Andrews & The Empress of Arcadia meet The Social Christmas Market Uptown - Today

Today from midday sharp until 17:00hrs a small corner of the Upstairs Bar at The Social Christmas Market  on Little Portland Street in the district of London known as W.1. will be forever Arcadia as myself and the Empress are stalling out with our good friend Suna Setna alongside Caught by the River; Borough Wines; Folklore Tapes; Heavenly Records and Heavenly Films whilst Mr Bruno Vincent practices the art of fly tying at the bar.  It would be most delightful to have your company over half a milk stout.  Please bring ironed fivers and terriers.  Thank-you.

Advent-under-the-Counter: Anders Osterlin in Arcadia

Advent-in-Arcadia continues Under the Counter Madam! with the last remaining and especially-kept- for-Christmas ABU Poster illustrated by the Swedish artist Anders Osterlin for the art and design collective known as Arbman.  Osterlin employed a technique which he himself developed of laying numerous colours over foil and was adopted for use by Andy Warhol at The Factory.  It is a priceless work of art which you can buy for only £50.  There is only one so please don't hestitate.

Handle The Hockley Street Relics

Once upon a time in Arcadia most notably on a Thursday in the last century and even the one before ladies and gentlemen abroad on the streets of London in search of presents for themselves; each other as well as their friends and family could call in upon one of the legions of fishing tackle shops that were dotted across the capital and there purchase an item of tackle very possibly made at the Richard Wheatley Works in Hockley Street in the silver capital of Birmingham.  Today in this new young century of ours there are a pitiful number of fishing tackle shops left in London but nearly all of those that remain will still sell items made by Richard Wheatley whose mantle was taken up in part a few years ago by the Wheatley collector and enthusiast Mr. Clive Edwards who can be found online at the Richard Wheatley Museum.

In the meantime should you be a lady or a gentleman abroad on the streets of London with a taste for the old fashioned-but-modern in search of presents for yourself or another you are invited to call in upon my stall of ten years standing at Spitalfields Antiques Market (Thursdays between 8am and 3pm) as Mr. Edwards has done on occasions joyous and there purchase old fly boxes and wallets and all other manner of things made by Wheatley & Son.   Of these I have a surplus ahead of The Feast of St. Nicholas - some dressed and some not - so please do not be shy.

New Trade Card

Oh! the joy of a new batch of one thousand new Trade Cards printed by the Master-in-Ink Mr. Martin Clark of Tilley Printing (est. 1870 in the Herefordshire town of Ledbury).  Delivered by liveried courier to my door and unwrapped with all the excitement of St. Nicholas Morn itself.  Available for the first time fresh off the press and over the cloth on the stall TOMORROW and elsewhere in Arcadia in the weeks and months to come.  Should you wish to have anything printed in letterpress I can only recommend Mr. Clark - we have collaborated for several years now on everything from paper bags and beer mats to posters and handbills and he is a gentleman of the first order and a printer supreme.  You may contact him on the Print Room Telephone Number 01531 632750 or visit his shop in the ether here. 

'Scarlet for Glacier Rivers to Order'

Bought recently and for immediate sale through the leaded window of the black lacquered wooden advent calendar that is my website in the month of December half a dozen Hardy's "Improved" Pennell Devons on their original flights dating to the years not forgotten of the 1920's.

'Probably the Most Deadly of All Artificial Baits for Pike and Perch'

So said the entry in the Hardy's Anglers' Guide of 1923 of their 'Improved "Swallow Tail" Rubber Bait' of which one is shown below alongside a couple of other unbranded examples.  All three are for immediate sale in the Emporium-in-a-Lay-by known as my website.

"Unthank" in Advent

Advent-in-Arcadia carries on with a rare public appearance by a W.J. Cummins "Unthank" Pattern "A" Fly Box with Xylonite Strips dating from 1925.  One gentleman said of it 'The "Unthank" Box I purchased has been the source of admiration from several men to whom I have shown it.'  Should you wish to elicit similar admiration from several men you may purchase the box almost ninety years after it was made by visiting the fishing tackle shop of years past also known as my website.