Alongside the famous and rare ‘Jones’s Guide to Norway’ Mr Jones also released ‘The Sportsman in France’ in 1841 and ‘The Sportsman in Canada’ 1845 with the assistance of Travel Writer, Frederic Tolfrey. Mr Jones himself sold fishing tackle at 111 Jermyn Street, not far from his contemporary Blacker’s Soho shop in central London. He seems to have been the first Norway specialist and published ‘Jones’s Guide to Norway’ in 1848 at a time when rivers like the Namsen were first drawing British sportsmen in significant numbers; indeed the Jock Scot was claimed to have been invented by the eponymous tyer that same year during a voyage across the North Sea to fish the Norwegian rivers.
Just 100 copies of the Guide to Norway were produced, meaning today the book is extremely rare. Jones commissioned a sporting journalist, Fredric Tolfrey, to write the book based on information from the Norway veterans visiting his shop and notes on travel arrangements, tackle, accommodation and rivers passed on by Jones.
Messrs Longman, Brown, Green and Longman were engaged as publishers, the Whitefriars printer Bradbury and Evans printed the book. The engravers, Adlards, H.&J. produced the finest engravings of fishing flies that have ever been done.
Written by Dave Carne, published with kind permission.
Pattern Descriptions