Thomas Turner
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You may have seen my recent video whereby I showed you some of our recent Hardy reels acquired from a collection. This was actually part of my late fathers collection, Nigel Townsend.
Dad passed suddenly, almost two years ago aged 69. To say that he has left a huge whole in our lives is an understatement. Nevertheless Dad was an extremely positive person and the man who started me off in this game when I was 10 years old. My family and some friends were camping in Somerset and Dad, and I wondered off into an antiques shop whereby he found an old cane rod stamped ‘Hardy’. Dad bought the rod for around £20 and that was the first item we ever bought back in 1988. Our passion for buying vintage fishing tackle had begun. For the next 33 years Dad and I would attend as many antique fairs, car boot sales and auctions as we could. We had a few great finds over the years, one of the best being at auction. This was pre internet. The auction was advertised in a newspaper and one of the lots was described as ‘A brass Hardy reel’. We drove down that morning and found lot 388 underneath a table in a church hall. I can still remember going through this box on the floor which consisted of other reels and then suddenly I saw the perforations of this brass reel. I picked it up and could see straight away it was one of the first model 1891 Original Hardy Perfects.
I can still picture my Dads face, the look of shock and excitement! We then had to wait around three hours for the auction to start. Those three hours seemed like forever but finally the lot we had waited for arrived and the hammer went down as quick as it went up. We bought the reel for £140. We couldn’t have been happier. What a day! Dad bought and sold mountains of fishing tackle over the years so decided to make a small side-line by attending and stalling out at Redditch and Romsey tackle fairs from the late 1990s which were always a favourite of dads.
Redditch Tackle Fair
Dad, Mum and their friends also had great fun, attending the International Tackle Fair in Eindhoven, Netherlands for many years. Ebay came along around 1999 and this was another great tool Dad used. He loved to collect Hardy reels and Allcock Aerials. Part of the collection we are selling has some very nice Hardy Perfects to include the 5” brass face Perfect that is in Graham Turners ‘A collectors Guide’ book, some nice brass face Perfects, Silex Multiplers to name but a few.
Hardy reels
Dad was a great Fly and Coarse fisherman too. He loved collecting cased fish. He even had two large rainbow trout mounted in a bow fronted case he caught at Hawkridge Reservoir in Somerset. They were his pride and joy!
I have great memories of being woken up as a 8 year old at 4am and going with Dad to the King Sedgemoor drain in Somerset – A beautiful river out in the middle of the country and catching Tench, Bream and decent sized roach.
Time moves on as we all know and I have two young sons that love fishing and our eldest, now 10, is taking an interest in the vintage tackle, as well as his football and rugby. He is starting to help out at our new Thomas Turner Offices in Weston super Mare at the weekends when I need to sort a few things.
Nigel and his Grandson William fishing
From one generation to the next, time moves on. Thank you Dad for the fantastic memories and laughs we have had over the years. I only hope I can do the same with my sons.
The post A special Hardy Collection… appeared first on Thomas Turner Fishing Antiques.
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Dad passed suddenly, almost two years ago aged 69. To say that he has left a huge whole in our lives is an understatement. Nevertheless Dad was an extremely positive person and the man who started me off in this game when I was 10 years old. My family and some friends were camping in Somerset and Dad, and I wondered off into an antiques shop whereby he found an old cane rod stamped ‘Hardy’. Dad bought the rod for around £20 and that was the first item we ever bought back in 1988. Our passion for buying vintage fishing tackle had begun. For the next 33 years Dad and I would attend as many antique fairs, car boot sales and auctions as we could. We had a few great finds over the years, one of the best being at auction. This was pre internet. The auction was advertised in a newspaper and one of the lots was described as ‘A brass Hardy reel’. We drove down that morning and found lot 388 underneath a table in a church hall. I can still remember going through this box on the floor which consisted of other reels and then suddenly I saw the perforations of this brass reel. I picked it up and could see straight away it was one of the first model 1891 Original Hardy Perfects.
I can still picture my Dads face, the look of shock and excitement! We then had to wait around three hours for the auction to start. Those three hours seemed like forever but finally the lot we had waited for arrived and the hammer went down as quick as it went up. We bought the reel for £140. We couldn’t have been happier. What a day! Dad bought and sold mountains of fishing tackle over the years so decided to make a small side-line by attending and stalling out at Redditch and Romsey tackle fairs from the late 1990s which were always a favourite of dads.
Redditch Tackle Fair
Dad, Mum and their friends also had great fun, attending the International Tackle Fair in Eindhoven, Netherlands for many years. Ebay came along around 1999 and this was another great tool Dad used. He loved to collect Hardy reels and Allcock Aerials. Part of the collection we are selling has some very nice Hardy Perfects to include the 5” brass face Perfect that is in Graham Turners ‘A collectors Guide’ book, some nice brass face Perfects, Silex Multiplers to name but a few.
Hardy reels
Dad was a great Fly and Coarse fisherman too. He loved collecting cased fish. He even had two large rainbow trout mounted in a bow fronted case he caught at Hawkridge Reservoir in Somerset. They were his pride and joy!
I have great memories of being woken up as a 8 year old at 4am and going with Dad to the King Sedgemoor drain in Somerset – A beautiful river out in the middle of the country and catching Tench, Bream and decent sized roach.
Time moves on as we all know and I have two young sons that love fishing and our eldest, now 10, is taking an interest in the vintage tackle, as well as his football and rugby. He is starting to help out at our new Thomas Turner Offices in Weston super Mare at the weekends when I need to sort a few things.
Nigel and his Grandson William fishing
From one generation to the next, time moves on. Thank you Dad for the fantastic memories and laughs we have had over the years. I only hope I can do the same with my sons.
The post A special Hardy Collection… appeared first on Thomas Turner Fishing Antiques.
Continue reading...