HALFORD, Frederick.

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Modern Development of the Dry Fly, First edition, deluxe issue, number 44 of 75 copies signed by the author, of this illustrated guide on artificial fly-tying. Halford remains renowned for the "enormous authority he commanded on his chosen subject... he occupied a position that few angling writers have ever held either before or since" (Herd, p. 17).This is an updated and improved version of Halford's previous classic works Floating Flies and How to Dress Them (1886) and Dry Fly Entomology (1897), presenting a new set of dry fly patterns based on natural insect specimens collected by the author during the fishing season of 1902. The first volume includes photographic colour reproductions of the dry fly patterns featured in the second volume, as well as their detailed descriptions, and gives instructions on how to make them with the appropriate tools. The colour charts were made on the basis of "a monumental compendium issued by the Royal Horticultural Society. Eighteen colours are thus reproduced, for shades (degrees of light and dark) being given of each. These colours and shades, according to Mr Halford, are the true tints of the natural flies with which he deals, and constitute a permanent, standard record which may safely be used by all future fly-tiers" (Dunne).Among Halford's readers was the American angler Theodore Gordon (1854-1915) who introduced the author's fly fishing techniques to the streams and rivers of New England. Halford therefore "put dry-fly fishing on su

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