National Library News
May 1998
Vol. 30, no. 5



From the Rare Book Collection...

by Michel Brisebois,
Rare Book Librarian, Research and Information Services

cast
"The First Cast".

Dean Sage. The Ristigouche and Its Salmon Fishing: With a Chapter on Angling Literature. Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1888. Folio. xvi, 275 p. Publisher’s gilt-stamped cloth.

The Restigouche River (known as Ristigouche in French) is known as one of the best salmon-fishing rivers in the world. It forms the dividing line between New Brunswick and Quebec and flows into Chaleur Bay. American fishing enthusiast Dean Sage (1841-1902) begins his book with a summary of the geography and history of the Restigouche area before dealing with the habits of the salmon and the history of fishing clubs. Naturally, he regales the reader with many fishing stories.

cast
"Osprey".

The book is a lavish production that was printed on wove paper and limited to 105 copies, half of which were for private distribution. But it is the illustrations, specifically Henry Sandham’s etchings, that make this book important in the field of Canadian art, although few people besides specialists have recognized the work’s significance. Sandham contributed six original etchings, five plates and one vignette, all but one drawn and engraved by the artist. Other contributors include American engravers Stephen Parrish (father of well-known illustrator Maxfield Parrish) and C.A. Platt, British engravers Anna Lea Merritt and Charles Oliver Murray, and Scottish engraver George W. Aikman.

moose
"Moose".

home
"Reaching Home".

Born in Montreal in 1842, Sandham worked for photographer William Notman for many years, at first in Montreal and then in Saint John, New Brunswick, before moving to Boston in 1885. He painted landscapes in oil and watercolour and contributed illustrations to a number of magazines and books. He moved to England late in life and died there in 1910. Familiar with the New Brunswick landscape, Sandham was an obvious choice as an illustrator for this book.

Although published abroad, Sage’s Ristigouche is really one of Canada’s earliest livres d’artistes, and a notable treasure in the National Library of Canada’s Rare Book Collection.


Copyright. The National Library of Canada. (Revised: 1998-04-21).