The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Chaps, any info on the quality of Homers taxidermist work, is it up there with Coopers ? the reason I ask is I have seen some examples for sale in the £1,000 /£2,000 region, although lovely is a bit out of my league as well as my wife not being too keen on a stuffed fish looking at her !
Tight lines Dave

They are at least equal to cooper, cooper is more well known, you could argue that Homer items are rarer as they did not produce the numbers of cooper.
I have a lovely Homer roach, it didn;t cost me an arm & leg

I agree with Pafpuff, Homers are certainly the equal of Coopers, anything from Homers is generally of good quality!

Thanks Chaps for the info, the fact that the prices they are asking for is high (to me !) must mean that the seller knows of their quality, the internet/google search engines gives sellers a good idea of what to ask for.
Tight lines
Dave

RR
You may enjoy checking out the work of Chris Elliot. I think he trained with Roland Ward. He's Thrapston based.

This is my Homer roach
The legend says Roach 2lb 1 1/2oz from Sussex Ouse 1913
So 102yrs old

I think I may have asked about this before but, I have a cased fish with initials in the bottom right hand corner, does anyone recognise them please.

Chaps, the prices reached at auction were, Coopers 1922 3lb 8oz Tench £2,600. Coopers 1913 23lb Pike £2,000. Homers 1913 2lb 4oz Rudd £2,000. Homers 1909 3lb Perch £2,000. Homers brace of Tench 1910 (each just over 3lb) £3,800. All were in bow fronted ebonised cases. On top of the prices would be a buyers premium, plus vat of 27%. All went in excess of the sale estimates. Most were caught in Lincs, the angler must have been well off to have been able to have sent the fish down to London to the top firms, hope the info is of interest. I'm guessing the prices would have been higher if they had been auctioned at Mullarkeys or similar specialist angling auctions ?
Tight lines Dave

By the sounds of it they reached their worth to the bidders, all seemed to have fetched good prices.
I dont think they would have reached more at the specialist auctions, as fish taxidermy collectors would scour the country to find what they are looking for, and it is quite easy with the internet now.

early tench are quite rare, as they were valued for the table as wer perch, big pike are always sought after, I dont know much about Rudd, I dont recall ever seeing one!

I do like the look of those stuffed fish but I to have a wife who does not want to be stared at by a fish and all I did was look at a cased Barbel in a local antique shop. Can't say it was the same quality as those pictured but it was in a bow fronted case.