A handwritten note from Eric Clapton to Pattie Boyd, 1980s, in black felt pen on Memo From The Big Cheese headed notepaper, informing her that he had Gone fishing, and would not be home for supper, signed will see you tonight. love, El. x, the reverse with a recipe for carrot cake in Boyd's hand; together with a unique colour Polaroid photograph of Clapton's assistant Nigel Carroll with a catch of four fish, the lower margin inscribed in Clapton's hand in black ink Rainbow trout = 4¹⁄₂ pounds each
the note 8 x 5¹⁄₂ in. (20.3 x 14 cm.); the Polaroid 4¹⁄₄ x 3¹⁄₂ in. (10.8 x 8.9 cm.)

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Lot Essay

On his return from the Minnesota addiction treatment centre Hazelden in early 1982, Eric Clapton began to spend a lot of time fishing. In her 2007 autobiography Wonderful Today, Pattie Boyd recalls that when Eric came home he was introverted and quiet; all he wanted to do was go fishing, so I became a trout widow... He would leave the house at about seven-thirty and wouldn’t be back until late afternoon—with five or six fish that he wanted cleaned and frozen. I learned how to gut them very quickly. Sometimes I would go with him and spend the day photographing wildflowers, but mostly he went alone and that was the way he preferred it.

In Clapton's own 2007 autobiography, he explained his newfound zeal for fishing at this time: Fishing is an absorbing pastime and has a Zen quality to it. It’s an ideal pursuit for anyone who wants to think a lot and get things in perspective. It was also a perfect way of getting physically fit again, involving, as it does, a great deal of walking. I would go out at the crack of dawn and often stay out till night-time, sometimes proudly returning with a bag of fish that I would present to Pattie to clean and cook. For once I was actually becoming good at something that had nothing to do with guitar playing or music.