Charles Playfair

1821 – 1825                56 Union Street

1825 – 1845                94 Union Street

1845 – 1860                70 Union Street

1860 – 1882                138 Union Street

1882 – 1925                142 Union Street

1925 – 1955                18 Union Terrace & 18 Diamond Street

 Charles Playfairs metal "D Minnows"

Charles Playfair's Phantom minnows in competition with Mr. Brown - marked with a C and a P on the fins

An early gaff marked Playfair - the brass shaft is octagonal - not many of these areound!

A small catalogue from Playfairs - quite scarce from the late 1920s (based on the 18 Union Terrace Address)

The Salmon Flies of Playfair

I do not think Playfair went in for catalogues for their fishing tackle, as far as I’m aware they only published one price list that was not illustrated (as illustrated above) and a small brochure on the Vibration rod. There may be something lurking out there that I do not know about yet though, that’s half the excitement of fishing tackle collecting, you just don’t know! However the price list is undated but I guess it was from around the late 1920s and luckily for us it lists the salmon flies that were stocked, here they are:

Pattern	Code	Pattern	Code	Pattern	Code
Ackroyd	B	Colonel	A	Mar Lodge	A
Admiral	A	Delfur Fancy	A	Member	A
Balmoral	B	Druggist	A	Mystery	A
Beaconsfield	A	Duke	A	Namsen	A
Bell Irving	A	Dunkeld	A	Parson	A
Benchill	A	Durham Ranger	A	Popham	A
Black Doctor	A	Dusty Miller	A	Poynder	A
Black Dog	A	Eagle	B	President	A
Black Dose	A	Ghost	A	Red Rover	A
Black Ranger	A	Gordon	A	Red Marine	A
Blue Charm	C1	Green Charm	C1	Sherbrook	A
Blue Doctor	A	Green Highlander	A	Silver Blue	C2
Blue Jacket	A	Green Peacock	C1	Silver Doctor	A
Blue Jock Scott	A	Greenwell	A	Silver Grey	A
Blue Marine	A	Inky Boy	A	Sir Charles	C1
Brora	A	Jeannie	C2	Sir Richard	A
Brown Dog	A	Jockie	C2	Snow Fly	A
Bull Dog	A	Jock Scott	A	Sun Fly	A
Butcher	A	Joe Brady	A	Stevenson	A
Candlestick Maker	A	Kelsall	A	Thunder & Lightning	A
Captain	A	Lady Caroline	B	Torrish	A
Childers	A	Logie	C2	Watsons Fancy	C1
Claret	A	Manchester Swell	A	Wilkinson	A
Cluny	C2	March Brown	C2

A – Best Quality Fully Dressed Fancy Salmon Flies, prices :

6/0 (½in) and 6/0 (¼in) at 3/6 each

5/0 (½in), 5/0 (¼in), 4/0 (½in) and 4/0 (¼in) at 3/- each

4/0 at 2/9 each

3/0, 2/0 and 1/0 at 2/6 each

1½, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 at 2/3 each

B – Plain Flies – unfortunately these were listed as 4 examples then “etc.” so this is not a full list, prices:

5/0 (½in), 4/0 (½in) and 4/0 (¼in) at 2/- each

4/0, 3/0 and 2/0 at 1/9 each

Smaller at 1/6 each

C – Small Flies, for summer fishing either single or double eyed hooks, prices:

C1                   C2

3/0 at                           2/3 each           1/9 each

2/0 at                           1/9 each           1/6 each

1/0, 1, 2, 3 & 4 at        1/6 each           1/3 each

Smaller at                    1/3 each           1/- each

Also offered were Low Water Dressings, “these flies have short bodies and are dressed on fine wire eyed hooks, Sizes 4 to 10 Limerick. Plan of fancy patterns can be had. Prices as with ordinary dressings”

Digley made Salmon reels sold by Playfair

The above are 4 1/4" and 4 1/2" salmon reels marked with the Dingley "D" - these are LOUD!

The invention of the Tube Fly

The following piece I copied from somewhere (I can't remember where from so appologise if I offend anyone)

Grants Vibration Rods

Of course Playfair was most famous for it's line of Grants Vibration spliced rod, here are a few photos to start with, expect to see more here in the near future

Above a few very early Grant Vibration rods made by Playfairs - early rods had Nickle Silver plated reel fitting, trout rods are scarer than salmon one, the rod at the bottom of the picture is the only one I have seen that has no cork on the lower grip. Playfair's kept lists of all the rods they made and these passed to Somers, when Somers was sold a vintage tackle dealer (JMG) bought three of these record books - I bought them from him in September 1990, to try to save them - the current Somers shop in Aberdeen has the remainer. Here is what they look like: (please note that the records in my posession cover the numbers 232 - 1153 (dates from 1906 - 1918, this first book contains summary details, number, length, action and weight). 1881 - 3300 (dates from 1925 - 1934) and 3301 - 5325 ( dates from 1934 - 1956).

Grant the inventor of these rods and an record setting spey caster is an interesting chap, the following comes from the Carrbridge museum:

"Alexander Grant (who was known as BATTAN) was born at Battangorm, Carrbridge in 1856. He was the inventor of "The Grant Vibration Rod". A patent for this fishing rod was applied for in 1894 and was granted. The Application described the invention as "a non-slipping splice for fishing rods, golf club handles and other like articles." In 1896, Grant demonstrated his invention to the angling press of the day at Kingston-Upon-Thames. The rod design was unique. It was in 2, 3 and 4 sections. usually made of greenheart wood. Each section was joined to the other by overlapping splices, held in place by leather thonging. The invention took the angling world by storm. The constant vibrations of the wood throughout the rod made it possible to cast enormous distances with little effort. In an angling Competition, Grant achieved a world record cast of almost 55 yards.

In 1900, Grant, who was making his rods single-handed, could no longer cope with the demand and he sold the patent to Messrs Playfair of Aberdeen. From this time, he centred his efforts on his other passion, fiddle-making. He invented the "Rondello". This instrument had a distinctive disc shape, and was hollow throughout. The Rondello Fiddle can be seen at Inverness Museum. Alex began playing the violin at the age of 10. It is said that after his first violin lesson he refused to go back because the tone of the teacher's violin was so bad. Allowing for some exaggeration, this story accurately reflects Grant's interest in the sound quality of the instrument. After leaving school at the age of 8, he had a varied career as a ploughman, shepherd, draper, forester, grocer, butcher, gamekeeper, fisherman,
hairdresser and Fishing Tackle Merchant.

The back of a Playfair Hook Scale, see below for the front!

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