Fly Fishing-how old is it?

I bought this for £2 today, I like old fishing stuff. Its a framed fly display. At the top it says "The Conba Collection". Below it says "Fishing Flies of Britain and Ireland" "Dates of Origin".
Some of the flies are missing but there's a :-

200 AD. Aelian
400 AD. March Brown
1375 Claret Bumble
1450 Soldier Palmer.

I never knew fly Fishing was this old, is this right.

The missing ones are:-

1880 Connemara Black
1600 Blue and Black
1879 Invicta
1450 Soldier Palmer.

Just out of interest, anyone any ideas where I might get these.?

Thanks Paul, I have had a quick look and will be emailing them.

I also found a piece of paper on the back. It states "The first artificial flies were mentioned by a Roman author, Aelian in 200 AD.

If any one asks me "what have the Romans ever done for us", now I can reply "gave us fly fishing". That's worth the two quid alone. cheers.

Worth a read. The long history of fly fishing, long merely just another very successful way of catching fish before the Money Boys and Posers got their hands on it.

Fly Fishing History: ?lian

Paul Boote said:

Worth a read. The long history of fly fishing, long merely just another very successful way of catching fish before the Money Boys and Posers got their hands on it.

Fly Fishing History: �lian

Click to expand...

Money boys and Posers? I take it you are talking about the "Carp brigade" with their 4 or 5 £200+ rods with matching £100+ reels, £120 rod pods, bivvy, barrow, "name" clothing, remote control bait alarms, bait boat, and every other conceivable must have add ons. Or are you talking about the match angler with 2 or 3 £3000 poles, a feeder rod for every occasion, pellet waggler rod, match rod, power match rod....... reels of every description, all the "name" clothing to go with it...etc, etc....
I know a lot of fly fishermen who only have a couple of rods, with reels to match and a couple of boxes of flies, which they have made the majority of, themselves.
I wish people would stop trying to make out that all fly fishermen are toffs and the like. Its fishing, like any other kind of fishing....... In fact, in a lot of cases you can get a day on a decent trout river/lake for less than you would pay to fish a overstocked goldfish pond.... Each to their own I say....

That one rose well ... I didn't even have to resort to my size-24 chironomid emerger....