Sherlock Holmes: E-List, 1890-1953

A group of 16 items that have been priced to market by recent world–wide survey, so that no one is offering a finer copy at our price and no one is offering an equal copy for less.

For any additional photos and current availability, please follow the links for each of the items listed below, or click here. To order something or make an inquiry please email us, use the “Ask A Question” button at the bottom of the individual listings, or use the website contact form. Institutions will be invoiced according to their respective needs.

a beautiful copy of the first hardcover edition

Doyle, Arthur Conan

A Study in Scarlet

Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1890. 1st American edition of the first Sherlock Holmes, but more importantly, the 1st hardcover edition, and a rare book in its own right, preceded only by a magazine appearance and 2 paperbacks.  The skeleton key that opens the collector’s understanding of this book’s rarity and quality is that only 4 copies have sold at auction in the last 50 years and this copy is finer than any of them.  Original cloth, 3 minuscule spots to the back cover, the lightest bit of rubbing and soiling, else near fine condition, a fabulous copy of an underappreciated book.

$12,500

the first appearance of the second Holmes novel

Doyle, Arthur Conan

The Sign of the Four

Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1890. The 1st appearance anywhere of the second Sherlock Holmes, in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine.  Original wrappers, a chip to the lower corner of the front wrapper, a thin chip from the spine taking the bottom half of the letters T, H, and E, other lesser wear, splits along the hinges but still integral, 2 small tissue remnants to the inside of the wrapper, and we are being fussy here and it is, otherwise, in very good condition without restoration.  Old half morocco case.

Note, that the title has the word “the” twice, not seen again in most later editions

$7,000

in the scarce first issue binding

Doyle, Arthur Conan

The Sign of Four

London: Spencer-Blackett, 1890. 1st edition, 1st issue binding with Spencer–Blackett at the base of the spine, preceding the 2nd issue binding by a year, and the only point that matters because the text points are meaningless since they occur in all copies of the 1st printing (the only 1890 edition), and sellers who list those points can be judged as prone to the added fluff and misdirection of smoke and mirrors.  32–page Spencer–Blackett catalog, dated October, at the end (no priority but copies with the catalog are much scarcer).  Original cloth, spine ends chipped with a pinhead sized dot of strengthening, other lesser wear, inner paper hinges reinforced, else a good copy.

$5,500

inscribed by Doyle

Doyle, Arthur Conan

The Sign of Four

London: Newnes, 1901. What the publisher calls the Souvenir Edition.  Original cloth, one scratch, rubbing to the extremities, front inner paper hinge invisibly strengthened, else a very good, bright copy.  Inscribed in black ink on the title page, “Yours very truly Arthur Conan Doyle.” 

You say you’d rather have an inscribed copy of the 1890 1st edition?  Me too, but the last one at auction sold for $201,000, and if you have the patience to wait, and the money to spend, then buy that.  A copy like ours is still plenty rare, it’s (unusually) signed with his full name, and it’s at a price that can’t be beat in the recent past and won’t be beat anytime in the future.

$14,000

the first appearances of 56 stories and 2 novels

Doyle, Arthur Conan

Complete Run of the Sherlock Holmes Stories, As Well As 2 Complete Novels, in the Individual Strand Magazines

London and New York: Strand, 1891-1927. 79 vols. 1st appearances anywhere, in the original monthly parts, of all 56 stories and both of the novels (The Adventures, The Memoirs, Hound of the Baskervilles, The Return, Valley of Fear, His Last Bow, and The Casebook), being every Holmes story that Doyle ever wrote, and the 2 novels published serially in these magazines (only A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four were not published in the Strands). All are the “London and NY” issues except The Hound which is imprinted “NY and London.” Half the spines faded, some chips, tears, and strengthening, else very good, but most crucially, it’s all here, and rarer than a football player blaming God for a defeat, and it’s quite a beguiling time capsule of wide ranging content, fashion, fiction, news, illustration and advertising.

The first modern media spectacle, and the model for all that followed, exploded when these Strands were issued. After the first 2 or 3 stories, unprecedented buzz generated long queues, stretching for blocks, at newsstands on the day of the months that each was published. Yet, despite those sales, sets in wrappers are now of the utmost rarity, but in reverse of their chronology. The Adventures and The Memoirs are seen occasionally, and sets of them are 100 times rarer in wrappers than when they’ve been rebound, or in the annual Strand collected clothbound form that is so often seen, or even the later cloth 1st editions. The Hound is 5 times scarcer again than The Adventures or Memoirs and the same proportions hold true for its relative scarcity over the bound Strands or the clothbound 1st edition. Then it gets crazy. Complete sets of The Return and Valley of Fear, in wrappers, are rare, and significantly less obtainable than their predecessors, and complete runs of His Last Bow and The Casebook, might as well be impossible. In fact, hopes for finding any of the last 2 in wrappers, complete with all their covers, other contents and ads, belong in the morgue, as few booksellers, collectors or librarians, have ever seen a single set of them for sale, at any price, in any condition.                

$85,000

the first two collections of Holmes short stories

Doyle, Arthur Conan

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes [and] The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

London: Newnes, 1892 [and] 1894. 2 vols. 1st editions of the third and fourth Sherlock Holmes.  Original cloth.  A near fine set (the hinges are uncracked), with light rubbing and soiling, but beautiful beyond hope.  Laid into each book is a contemporary handwritten note, signed by Doyle.  Ex–Katherine de Berkeley Parsons (Sotheby’s, 1976), a provenance renown for impeccable quality.  Old, morocco tipped, double slipcase.

About the 2 notes:  That in The Adventures is 42 words, dated 1892, and signed A. Conan Doyle, all in black ink.  That in The Memoirs is 25 words, undated, and signed A. Conan Doyle, also in black ink.

$9,000

Holmes meets the supernatural

Doyle, Arthur Conan

The Hound of the Baskervilles

London: Newnes, 1902. 1st edition of the fifth Sherlock Holmes.  Original cloth, spine toned, some rubbing, else very good. A book that has become exceedingly scarce in truly fine condition, but it is still common enough in anything less than fine, so it’s essential to buy copies without restoration.

Doyle explores what are presented as supernatural elements for the first time in a Sherlock Holmes story, creating what is, perhaps, the best known of any Holmes case.

$2,250

a publisher’s presentation copy

Doyle, Arthur Conan

The Hound of the Baskervilles

New York: McClure, 1902. First Edition. Hardcover. 1st American edition, second state, with the 'R' on the copyright page. A publisher’s presentation copy, inscribed on the endpaper in pencil, “Compliments of Publishers, 5/14/02.”  Original cloth.  Spine faded half a shade, some flaking to the spine lettering, corners lightly pushed, near fine. 

$500

precedes the London edition by a month

Doyle, Arthur Conan

The Return of Sherlock Holmes

New York: McClure, 1905. 1st edition of the sixth Sherlock Holmes, preceding the London edition. Original cloth in the 1st issue, pictorial binding, The color is flaked in a few places but less so than usually seen, some rubbing and soiling, inner paper hinges strengthened, but otherwise very good.

$600

Holmes the bee farmer

Doyle, Arthur Conan

The Return of Sherlock Holmes

New York: McClure, 1905. 1st edition, preceding the London edition.  Original cloth.  Near fine with some rubbing to the extremities.  This copy is in what McClure calls the “special edition” binding, that is different than the 1st issue binding but more common and in no other way special,  Bookplate of Adrian Goldstone.

$300

Doyle capitulates to Holmes fans  

Doyle, Arthur Conan

The Return of Sherlock Holmes

London: Newnes, 1905. 1st English edition.  Original cloth, bookplate to pastedown endpaper, name to free endpaper, light rubbing to the extremities, small ink stain to the front board, else very good. 

With the success of '“The Hound of the Baskervilles,” which is set before the death of Holmes in “The Final Problem,” Doyle relented and published his first Holmes stories since 1893, bringing Holmes back to life, the greatest resurrection in literature until Jon Snow.

$1,650

in dustjacket

Doyle, Arthur Conan

The Valley of Fear

New York: Doran, 1914. First Edition. Hardcover. 1st edition of the seventh Sherlock Holmes book, and the 4th Holmes novel, preceding the London edition.  Original cloth, fine in a dustjacket with some chips restored.

Doyle incorporates a dual narrative structure, as the plot transitions from the present-day investigation by Holmes and Watson to a historical account of the events that led to the central crime. The additional space afforded by a full novel, gave Doyle the opportunity to change and blend genres within the two narratives, from a traditional Sherlockian detective mystery, to the suspenseful exposition.

$11,000

sharp and bright  

Doyle, Arthur Conan

The Valley of Fear

London: Smith, Elder, 1914. 1st English edition.  Original cloth.  A fine, sharp copy, and scarce like this.  Ex–Douglas Ewing (small oval bookplate).  Old cloth case.

$1,500

the intended farewell  

Doyle, Arthur Conan

His Last Bow

London: Murray, 1917. 1st edition of the eighth Sherlock Holmes.  Original cloth, some soiling, spine faded else very good. 

$400

Doyle experiments  

Doyle, Arthur Conan

The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes

New York: Doran, 1927. 1st edition of the ninth and final Sherlock Holmes, published simultaneously with the London edition.  Original cloth.  Some rubbing to the extremities, and minor soiling, very good. 

$250

the only limited, signed Sherlock Holmes

Doyle, Arthur Conan

The Complete Sherlock Holmes

New York: Doubleday, 1953. 1st edition.  Copy number 2 of 147 signed by Doyle (the signed sheets were leftovers from the Crowborough edition and saved in the publisher’s files for this, the only limited, signed complete Holmes).  Original half morocco, slightly faded at extreme edges only, else near fine, in fine, original acetate dustjackets, and near fine slightly faded publisher’s paper slipcase.  A compliments slip from the publisher is laid in probably explaining why they is copy number 2. The last set at auction had tape repairs to the vol. I dustjacket, and a long crease to the vol. II spine, and sold for $7,500 at PBA in 2022.

Sherlock Holmes is the most durable, and the most famous, character in the entire landscape of literature, and the stories are sheer stardust, the morphine drip of impeccably conceived, mind expanding detective fiction, and the most frequently imitated, parodied, and adapted works in the English language. 

$5,500