Atlantic Salmon Journal Winter 1999 Volume Forty-Eight Number 4
As we stamp "finis" on the 20th century, so many of the traditional elements have been supplanted by things that can be made cheaper, faster and more expediently - progress.
Split bamboo fly rods with brass ferrules, boats with steam bent ribs and plank on plan hulls, wicker creels with leather trim are all seeping into obscurity on the alter of cost efficiency.
Added to the list trophy fish carvings painstakingly rendered out of a single block of wood and lovingly brought to life with oil paints. But there's someone who is bringing this craft back - and what do you know? "She's" a former cover girl (Weightwatcher's magazine) named Ellen McCaleb!
A little history is warranted here.
At the beginning of the 19th century, options were simple. Catch-a-fish, eat-a-fish. There being neither refrigeration nor photography, one was free to embellish piscatorial dimensions at will.
Then someone got the bright idea of tracing their trophy on a plank and sawing the pattern out on a jig. These fish silhouettes - complete with names, dates, weights, and length - still grace many an old riverfront lodge. Scotsman John B, Russell is generally acknowledged to be the first person to professionally carve fish trophies out of wood. Russell's shop, the Fochabers Studio, created model predominately for the prestigious C. Farlow and company. - who proved so successful in his partnership that they featured Russell's work in their catalog advertisements, from 1891 until well into the 1930s. Success bread competition and P. D. Malloch and the Hardy bros. teamed up to oipen competing studios. These studios turned out an outstanding product, but made a limited number due to the time and attention each commission required.
According to Stephen O. Brien Jr. , a modern Boston - based dealer of sporting arts and collectibles,"(heirloom trophy fish carvings rarely come to the market. Fewer than a dozen may change hands through the course of a year."
Carved fish were certainly not the only options available to 19th century sportsmen. Taxidermy was an obvious option, as well as cast models made with plaster of paris and then hand painted. Unfortunately, early taxidermy was extremely fragile and did not age well. Plaster models were ultimately quite heavy and prey to the occasional ding which adding character to wood, substantially reduced the value and appearance of a sculpted piece.
Ellen McCaleb commenced her career by studying architecture at the University of Pennsylvania where she learned to think 3-dimensionally This knowledge was to prove to be key to her carving development. She buttressed this training by taking 4 art courses that taught her the basics of painting and design. From there, Ellen learned her craft by mostly trial and error. Her first 2 fish in fact, were sculpted entirely out of clay.
After graduating in 1991, she took the safe and conventional job that satisfies all of our parents and served as the manager of investor relations at a venture capital firm. Unlike most of us, however, she was able to neatly slip traces of corporate life, as McCaleb ruefully recounts, "in fear of corporate homogenization I decide to pursue a living doing something that inspired me. I knew of 2 things that inspired me - fish and working with my hands."
In her carving, Ellen tries to represent the fish as caught, without trying to photographically replicate it. As she explains it: "Mother nature is too magnificent. What I do is get the size and shape right and then give my work interpretation."
The texture and colouration that ellen brings to each carving result in a piece that is it's own entity, as well as a work of art that looks like the buyers catch.
One of the wonderful realities of fish carvings is that they are considered an art form transcending the popular catch-all: "folk art period." Duck decoys may be the closest relative to trophy carvings; however, they're distant relatives at best. While fish carvings were art from the onset, purchased at considerable expense and hung in places of honour in a sportsman home, lodge or club; duck decoys of the same era were mere toots, purchased cheaply by the dozen and relegated to boat houses and toolsheds. It's ironic that no-one ever commemorated a fallen duck with a carving in it's effigy 'yet the top decoys today far outstrip the best trophy fish carvings at auction.
Unlike many such items, you probably can afford an original McCaleb. Ellen's pieces are priced individually based on size and presentation. A 30-inch steelhead trophy mounted on a fully carved and hand painted backboard obviously costs more than a traditional carving will. If you prefer an original Tulley that has been aged for generations in an old clubroom be prepared, "the good ones sell for between 5,000 and 10,000," says Stephen O'brien Jr.
McCaleb sums it up best when she says, "there is what we had; what we have left; and what will come to pass. Fortunately for me, I find great promise in the stories and beautiful photos that arrive with each commission. It gives me great satisfaction to know that when people view these magnificent trophy fish the original is still happily swimming in a river somewhere."
