Antique Fishing Priest collection catalogue

Antique Fishing Priests

A collection of wood turners’ art in angling across three centuries by Dave Watson.

This Second Edition is limited to 100 copies.

This book illustrates the elevation of the humble priest, designed to allow the sporting angler to dispatch his catch humanely, from a utility object to an art form by the wood turners’ craft, in a remarkable collection of ninety seven unique priests.

Materials used include boxwood, laburnum, yew wood, rose wood, walnut, ash, ebony, chestnut and lime woods; elephant, walrus and narwhal ivory; bone and whalebone.

Even rarer than turned priests of this quality it seems, are references in print. We note 19th century Piccadilly maker, J Bernard advertised as “J Bernard Fishing Tackle Maker & Turner”.

From the Narwhal ivory and walnut (cover) priest sporting the ‘V (crown) R’ Royal cipher, to the earliest - dated 1718 - and the others from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries - all are the result of refining the collection over four decades.

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