Inherited Cane Rods - Help Needed

Hi everyone,

Some years ago I inherited a few cane rods from my uncle when he sadly passed away. Not knowing anything about older fishing tackle I am hoping that someone will be able to help me out.

I have no interest in selling these items as they mean too much to me, I just would love to know what I have. I am curious to know if they are rare and collectable with any value or simply mass produced items of no interest to anyone.

To start with the rods are:

1. A hexagonal 3 piece cane rod with the wording 'Made By Sealey England' 'Rover' and a picture of an octopus with the wording 'Octopus ESS' near the handle.

2. Another hexagonal 3 piece cane rod with the wording 'Dalesman' 'The Severndale'(this i'm not 100% sure on as it's hard to read due to the writing style).

3. A 2 piece cane fly style rod with a sticker near the handle that reads 'Reg Ironmonger Angling Specialist Birmingham'

4. A 2 piece cane fly style rod with no identifying marks on it.

I wouldn't expect anyone to be able to make much of an assesment from these decriptions, especially on 3 & 4; but if anyone thinks that they may be able to help me out I can e-mail over any photos that may be of assistance.

Thanks in advance,
Chris.

Perhaps one of the sites below may help you Chris??

http://www.cane-rods.mistral.co.uk/

http://www.vintagefishingtackle.com/

http://www.vintage-fishing-tackle-uk.com/

http://www.flyfishingantiques.com/

Sealy octopus Ess is a double handed salmon fly rod ,the ess being for salmon,...Dalesman rods were made in Redditch by Jim Aspindale,i think the severndale is a float rod or bottom rod as they used to be called,there was a whole series of rods all with different names ending in dale,both are good quality rods and collectable,,,,,reg ironmonger(or is it iremonger)was probably a tackle dealer....as to value condition is everything,ess rod maybe ?40 to?80,dalesman maybe a little more,,,,do not store anywhere too warm or dry as they can dry out and become brittle.

These rods are indeed very collectable and as Trisantona says the value very much depends on the condition they are in.

Do they have the original rod bag that has not been eaten by mice for example?

Rods without makers names tend not to be valuable.

Hate to say it but the quality of Sealey split cane at that time was not of the best. There was a period in the 60s when the quality of the split cane deteriorated horribly. This coincided with the availabilty of decent glass fibre. By 1965, I, and several other members of the NSG had changed almost all our rods to glass. The only rod in split cane I used then was a Sharpes Scotty impregnated 8 foot fly rod.