Tight Lines Tuesday Monarch

by John Etchieson

Tight Lines Tuesday Monarch; Thomas H. Wood (1846 – 1931) was the founder of the fishing line manufacturing company in South Coventry Connecticut which bore his name and produced this extremely rare and handsome looking MONARCH pure silk fishing line over 100 year ago in 1917.

The regal looking animal at the center of the label is from an engraving modeled after the world famous “Monarch of the Glen”, an oil-on-canvas painting of a red deer stag completed in 1851 by the English painter Sir Edwin Landseer, to hang in the Palace of Westminster in London. However, the stag has twelve points on his antlers, both in the painting and on the line spool label engraving which in deer terminology technically makes him a “royal stag” but not a “monarch stag”, for which sixteen points are needed. However, despite that discrepancy, it itill represents a magnificent looking example of mid 19th century sporting art at its finest.

Special thanks to Mike Pollack for the use of his Monarch spool for this article.

Comments or questions may be sent to John at johnsetch@aol.com