Near Fine Condition with some very light soiling to 

the binding. Clean interior, no torn or missing pages. 

Tight, firm binding.  

Shipping details at bottom.

The Derrydale Press was a small publisher of finely 

crafted sporting books featuring topics such as hunting, 

fishing, sailing, skiing, polo, tennis and horseback riding. 

The press was started by Eugene V. Connett, III in 

1927 and between then and 1942, The Derrydale Press 

published 169 books, 30 of which were privately printed. 

The mission of The Derrydale Press was “to create works 

of the highest quality for the enjoyment of contemporary 

sportsmen and their descendants.”

Eugene V. Connett, III was a sportsman all his life and 

wrote sporting themed articles for Field and Stream, 

The American Angler and The Sportsman. In 1922 his 

first book, Wing Shooting and Angling, was published.  

Besides hunting, fishing and writing, Connett also like 

to collect sporting books and sporting art. He sold a 

hat factory in Newark, NJ that he had inherited and in 

1925, at the age of 34, he began working for a printer 

so he could learn the trade and business.  

Two years later he started The Derrydale Press.

Connett wrote “We should like to call attention to the 

fact that the Derrydale hand-colored sporting prints are 

the only hand-made, permanent prints depicting 

present-day American sport, and that they will survive 

as probably the only pictorial record of this great 

sporting era – aside from the very limited number of 

original paintings being done. For this reason alone 

they are worth collecting.”

The Derrydale Press was started at a time when the 

American economy was strong and people had the 

time and money to pursue hobbies and pastimes.  

After the stock market crash of 1929 very few people 

could continue on as before. But The Derrydale Press’s 

fine quality books had a strong enough customer base 

of wealthy collectors that it was able to stay in business 

when many other presses had to close. But the 

production from the press had slowed down and because 

Connett refused to lower the quality of materials used in 

his books the press started to lose money.

 Eventually Connett’s personal finances were depleted.  

In the late 1930s the press was saved by the wealthy 

patron, Hooker Talcott, who provided the funding to

 keep the business solvent.

By the early 1940s, The Derrydale Press had new 

problems to deal with. Because of the resources being 

used during World War II, the press could no longer 

obtain the highest grade all-rag paper required for its 

prints and books.  In early 1942 Connett liquidated the 

Press, selling the books and related materials to Nat Wartels 

of Crown Publishing, Inc. Crown never used The Derrydale 

name but in the 1980s it was sold to Doug Malden, who 

operated a press under the name Derrydale in Mississippi. 

In 1999, the name was sold to Jed Lyons of Lanham, 

Maryland who published reprints of original Derrydale 

books and contemporary books as well.

Connett also gave the rights to all his unsold prints and 

the right to use the Derrydale name in promotion of the 

prints to Frank L. Lowe, his sales manager. Lowe also 

published 29 prints in his own name over the next 6 years. 

In 1948 he too stopped making and selling prints. 

International sales pay $5.99 shipping to eBay hub. 

U.S. Shippig is $5.99 for USPS Media Mail.