168 - ERNEST HEMINGWAY’S (1899–1961) TROUT FLIES

ERNEST HEMINGWAY’S (1899–1961) TROUT FLIES In a modern black wooden frame: 32.4 x 42.4 cm. Twelve exceptional trout flies that belonged to Ernest Hemingway—the great 20th-century writer—and were gifted to him by Charles RITZ, his close friend. Never used, with their original tags still attached. The flies in the Gallica series were designed and tied—in part—by Mrs. Gérard de Chamberet. All named: SH May 5 St. Hubert calf tail, Exclusive to Mrs. Gérard de Chamberet, Sample No. 4 H13, Gallica No. 12, Dr. Massia Series No. 5, Sample, Gallica No. 31, Exclusive to Mrs. G. de Chamberet’s Widow, Exclusive to Mrs. Gérard de Chamberet (x2), Dr. Massia Series No. 3, Gallica No. 34. On either side of the bookmarks, are two “bookmarks” specially printed in 1999 for Jack HEMINGWAY, his eldest son (1923–2000), to mark the 100th anniversary of his father’s birth. This celebration took place at the Ritz Hotel on August 25, 1999—a date that also marked the anniversary of the “liberation” of the hotel’s bar on August 25, 1944, by Ernest Hemingway and a handful of F.F.I. members. Jack Hemingway had discovered two large trunks in the basement of the Ritz Hotel that had belonged to his father and contained, among other things, rods, reels, and fly boxes for trout fishing. Ernest Hemingway, a close friend of Charles Ritz (see the preface to his book *A Fly Fisher’s Life* for the United States), came almost every year in the 1950s, during the May fly season, to fish with Charles Ritz on the Risle and Andelle rivers (Normandy). Provenance France, from the private collection of Pierre Affre. A copy of his invitation to the celebration of the hotel’s “liberation” by Ernest Hemingway will be presented to the buyer.