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Inside Antiques, by Robert Reed   Inside Antiques: Sherlock Holmes Forever   By Robert Reed “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” A.Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four, 1890 The century old truth here is that Sherlock Holmes remains the greatest name in detective fiction yet today among collectors of fine mystery.   For more than 100 years, the four novels and 56 short stories of English writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle have attracted, and arrested, the eager imagination of followers everywhere.   The sleuth Sherlock as a crime solver has been more enduring to buffs and collectors than Agatha Christie’s Miss Jane Marple or Erie Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason. There are more than 100 Sherlock Holmes collector groups in the United States alone - including the fabled Bakers Street Irregulars.   Besides the various books and vast assortment of publishings of Doyle’s short stories, there have been over 200 films and television productions and over 40 major stage plays. Each has added to the Sherlock spirit and to the collectability of the fictional hero.   Doyle was born, raised and studied medicine in Edinburgh, England. He began his practice as an ophthalmologist in 1882 near Portsmouth. As a young doctor, he was not very busy so he began writing to occupy his time and to supplement his income.   In 1881, the year before he established his practice, Doyle’s Rodney Stone, A Reminiscence of the Ring was published and well received. A prized remaining copy of it brought nearly $11,000 at an auction in London in 1976.   Around 1886, be attempted to market his first story about one fictional Sherlock Holmes. The attempt was unsuccessful until Ward, Lock and Company agreed to publish it as part of a paperback anthology. They paid him $150 and A Study In Scarlet appeared in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887.   Naturally, the few surviving copies of that particular magazine, which first presented Holmes and Dr. Watson, are quite valuable. More than 10 years ago, the Metropolitan Library of Toronto paid $7,500 for their original copy and consider it a true treasure.   For the next few years, Doyle continued to dawdle at his medical practice and at the same time produce diverse kinds of fiction. His non-Sherlock Jack The Giant Killer was published in London in 1888. In 1890, the original magazine article of Scarlet was published, along with The Sign of the Four. That same year in Philadelphia, Lippincott also published the American version of I Scarlet, or Sign of Four. Sometime later, the Scarlet story appeared in an Eureka Detective Series, published in New York.   The adventures of the amazing detective were certainly starting to catch the fancy of readers on two continents.   By the close of 1891, Strand Magazine in London had published a series of stories by Doyle about Holmes and Dr. Watson. Scarcely two years later, in 1893, the first full series of Sherlock Holmes stories appeared in the United States in the then tremendously popular Harper’s Weekly.   From 1892 to 1894, a London publishing firm at last produced two volumes of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes for an eager public. Today, the blue cloth books are prized among collectors.   Literary critics and book collectors tend to consider Doyle’s 1902 book The Hound of the Baskervilles to be his finest work regarding Holmes. Different editions were published in London in 1902. Most highly prized is the volume in red cloth.   After writing 20-plus Sherlock Holmes mysteries, Doyle decided to kill off his detective hero. In The Final Problem, the 23rd Holmes story, he had a deadly struggle with the evil Professor Moriarty over a Swiss waterfall.   In December of 1894, Doyle had written in Strand Magazine of the event and of Sherlock plunging to his death. Public interest and Doyle’s own slacking bank account prompted him to write an ‘escape clause’ for the hero and return him to life in The Empty House.   Collectors are still quite fond of The Return of Sherlock Holmes, published in dark blue cloth in London in 1904. A good copy is now valued at $500 or more.   Doyle’s last Holmes adventure came in 1927. The limited, red cloth edition is titled The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes.   Eventually, Doyle abandoned all fiction writing to study and lecture on spiritualism until his death in 1930. Earlier in 1923, William Doran of New York published Doyle’s The Case For Spirit Photography.   Besides hardcover books, there were scores of magazine-type publications which featured Holmes material. Starting with Beeton’s Annual in 1887, they had spread to assorted publications in the early 1900s, both in England and America.   The silver screen saw a good deal of Sherlock Holmes in later years. Two films appeared in 1939, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of the Baskervilles. Both were produced by 20th Century Fox.   A wire service news story in 1988 quoted a Cleveland, Ohio, movie memorabilia dealer as saying a full-color poster of Fox’s 1939 film, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, was valued at $6,500.   “Holmes lives on,” observed the Los Angeles Times on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of seeing him in print, “his calabash pipe clamped firmly between his teeth, magnifying glass in hand, deerstalker cap on his head, darting through the streets of old London outwitting evildoers.”   Photos 1 - Paperback of first Sherlock Holmes stories published in England   2 - American illustration for 1893 issue of Harper's Weekly   3 - Signed 1892 first London copy of Adventures of Sherlock Holmes   Robert Reed has written on antiques and collectibles for more than two decades. He has also authored 15 books, including his recently released Antiques and Collectible Dictionary, available from www.collectorbooks.com     Return to top of page   This Is Livin' Publishing © 2011 581 8th Line West, RR1 Hastings, ON, K0L 1Y0 Phone/Fax: 705-696-1833   webmaster