THE PICKEREL PIKE print (Lucius Recticulatus)

These beautiful large unbound portfolio chromolithographs are from the State of New York “Fisheries, Game & Forests Commission’s Annual Report” for 1902. The artist, Sherman Foote Denton (1856 - 1937) was only three years old when he began to paint and study fish. This early attraction developed in later years to him revolutionising the way they were mounted and preserved to retain their original vibrant colours. As part of this process, Denton produced magnificent watercolour paintings of the fish he collected from all over the world.

“These colour drawings have been reproduced so exactly, that no coloured figures of fishes in existence exceed them for truthfulness or beauty of execution.” The Commissioners (Ref. Sherman Denton. Boston Herald American, 25 June 1937; The American Fly Fisher – The Fish Prints of S. F. Denton. Vol 20, No 3. 1994)