“My practice has extended recently to the Continent,” said Holmes, after a while, filling up his old briar-root pipe. “I was consulted last week by Francois Le Villard, who, as you probably know, has come rather to the front lately in the French detective service.” (The Sign of the Four, 1890)
A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of shag which I had seen upon the previous night. (“The Man With the Twisted Lip,” 1891)
Clay Pipe
“To smoke,” he answered. “It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes.” He curled himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his black
clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. (“The Red-Headed League,” 1891)
Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling.
Then he took down from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of infinite languor in his face. (“A Case of Identity,” 1891)
I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary Sutherland. (“A Case of Identity,” 1891)
“After all, Watson,” said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his clay pipe, “I am not retained by the police to supply their deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to jail now, and you make him a jail-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief feature.”
(“The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle,” 1892)
My first impression as I opened the door was that a fire had broken out, for the room was so filled with smoke that the light of the lamp upon the table was blurred by it. As I entered, however, my fears were set at rest, for it was the acrid fumes of strong
coarse tobacco which took me by the throat and set me coughing. Through the haze I had a vague vision of Holmes in his dressing-gown coiled up in an armchair with his black clay pipe between his lips. Several rolls of paper lay around him. (The Hound of Baskervilles, Chapter III, 1901)
Holmes sat motionless by the fire, his hands buried deep in his trouser pockets, his chin sunk upon his breast, his eyes fixed upon the glowing embers. For half an hour he was silent and still. Then, with the gesture of a man who has taken his decision, he sprang to his feet and passed into his bedroom. A little later a rakish young workman with a goatee beard and a swagger lit his clay pipe at the lamp before descending into the street. “I'll be back some time, Watson,” said he, and vanished into the night. I understood that he had opened his campaign against Charles Augustus Milverton; but I little dreamed the strange shape which that campaign was destined to take. (“The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton,” 1904)
Cherry-wood Pipe
“You have erred, perhaps,” he observed, taking up a glowing cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a disputatious rather than a meditative mood—“you have erred perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is really the only notable feature about the thing.” (“The Adventure of the Copper Beeches,” 1892)
Appendix II: Figures
Fig. 1. Sidney Paget, “Holmes Gave Me a Sketch of Events,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of Silver Blaze,” Strand Magazine, December 1892.
Fig. 2. D. H. Friston, illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887.
Fig. 3. George Hutchinson, “I’ve Found It! I’ve Found It! He Shouted,”
illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, London: Ward, Lock, Bowden & Co., 1891.
Fig. 4. Charles Henry Malcolm Kerr, “In the light of the lantern I read, with a thrill of horror, the sign of the four,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of the Four, London: Spencer Balckett, 1890.
Fig. 5. Sidney Paget, “This Photograph!” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” Strand Magazine, July 1891.
Fig. 6. Sidney Paget, “He Took out A Very Large Sponge,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Man with the Twisted Lip,” Strand Magazine, December 1891.
Fig. 7. Sidney Paget, “He Took Two Swift Steps to the Whip,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Case of Identity,” Strand Magazine, September 1981.
Fig. 8. Sidney Paget, “He Gave a Cry and Dropped,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” Strand Magazine, July 1891.
Fig. 9. Sidney Paget, “Taking Up a Glowing Cinder with the Tongs,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches,” Strand Magazine, June 1892.
Fig. 10. Sidney Paget, “Over the Rocks was Thrust out an Evil Yellow Face,”
illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” Strand Magazine, December 1901.
Fig. 11. Sidney Paget, “Then He Stood before the Fire,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” Strand Magazine, July 1891.
Fig. 12. Sidney Paget, “Our Visitor Sprang from His Chair,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Yellow Face,” Strand Magazine, February 1893.
Fig. 13. Sidney Paget, “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” Strand Magazine, March 1902.
Fig. 14. Sidney Paget, “It’s No Use, John Clay,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle,
“The Red-Headed League,” Strand Magazine, August 1891.
Fig. 15. Sidney Paget, “He Broke into a Scream,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle,
“The Man with the Twisted Lip,” Strand Magazine, December 1891.
Fig. 16. Sidney Paget, “Holmes Gave Me a Sketch of Events,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of Silver Blaze,” Strand Magazine, December 1892.
Fig. 17. Sidney Paget, “We Had the Carriage to Our Selves,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Boscombe Valley Mystery,” Strand Magazine, October 1891.
Fig. 18. Sidney Paget, “Mr. Jabez Wilson,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Red-Headed League,” Strand Magazine, August 1891.
Fig. 19. Sidney Paget, “‘What on Earth Does This Mean?’,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Red-Headed League,” Strand Magazine, August 1891.
Fig. 20. Sidney Paget, “The League Has a Vacancy,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Red-Headed League,” Strand Magazine, August 1891.
Fig. 21. Sidney Paget, “The Door was Shut and Locked,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Red-Headed League,” Strand Magazine, August 1891.
Fig. 22. Sidney Paget, “A Curious Collection,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle,
“The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual,” Strand Magazine, May 1893.
Fig. 23. Sidney Paget, “He Sprang to His Feet,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle,
“The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual,” Strand Magazine, May 1893.
Fig. 24. Sidney Paget, “This was the Place Indicated,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual,” Strand Magazine, May 1893.
Fig. 25. Sidney Paget, “It was the Figure of a Man,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual,” Strand Magazine, May 1893.
Fig. 26. Sidney Paget, “The Death of Sherlock Holmes,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Final Problem,” Strand Magazine, December 1893.
Fig. 27. Sidney Paget, “A Very Seedy Hard Felt Hat,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle,” Strand Magazine, January 1892.
Fig. 28. Sidney Paget, “He Broke the Seal and Glanced over the Contents,”
illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor,” Strand Magazine, April 1892.
Fig. 29. Sidney Paget, “‘Nothing Could Be Better,’ Said Holmes,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Stockbroker’s Clerk,” Strand Magazine, March 1893.
Fig. 30. Sidney Paget, “What Do You Make of That?” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Crooked Man,” Strand Magazine, July 1893.
Fig. 31. Sidney Paget, “He Gave A Cry and Dropped” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” Strand Magazine, July 1891.
Fig. 32. Sidney Paget, “He Hurled the Blacksmith over the Parapet,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” Strand Magazine, February 1892.
Fig. 33. Sidney Paget, “Holmes Lashed Furiously,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” Strand Magazine, February 1892.
Fig. 34. Sidney Paget, “Arthur Caught Him,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle,
“The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet,” Strand Magazine, May 1892.
Fig. 35. Sidney Paget, no caption, illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box,” Strand Magazine, January 1893.
Fig. 36. Sidney Paget, “How the Irish Soldiers in Ladysmith Celebrated St. Patrick’s Day,” The Sphere, April 28th 1990.
Fig. 37. Sidney Paget, “How Lord Robert’s Son Went out to Rescue the Abandoned Guns at Colenso,” The Sphere, March 16th 1900.
Fig. 38. Sidney Paget, “He Struck at the Shrinking, Snarling Savage,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Tragedy of Korosko,” Strand Magazine, June 1897.
Fig. 39. Sidney Paget, “I Clapped a Pistol to His Head,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet,” Strand Magazine, May 1892.
Fig. 40. Sidney Paget, “You Villain! Said He. ‘Where’s Your Daughter!’,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches,” Strand Magazine, June 1892.
Fig. 41. Sidney Paget, “‘Be off!’,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of Silver Blaze,” Strand Magazine, December 1892.
Fig. 42. Sidney Paget, “We Found Ourselves in the Inner Room,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Stockbroker’s Clerk,” Strand Magazine, March 1893.
Fig. 43. Sidney Paget, “He Cut at Me,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb,” Strand Magazine, March 1892.
Fig. 44. Sidney Paget, “Bending over the Prostrate Figure of Sherlock Holmes,”
illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Reigate Squire,” Strand Magazine, June 1893.
Fig. 45. Illustrator unknown, “The Murder of the Usurer,” The String of Pearls: A Romance, London: Edward Lloyd, 1850.
Fig. 46. Sidney Paget, “They Found the Body,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle,
“The Boscombe Valley Mystery,” Strand Magazine, October 1891.
Fig. 47. Sidney Paget, “I Held Him in My Arms,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle,
“The Boscombe Valley Mystery,” Strand Magazine, October 1891.
Fig. 48. Sidney Paget, “They Found the Dead Body of the Unfortunate Trainer,”
illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of Silver Blaze,” Strand Magazine, December 1892.
Fig. 49. Sidney Paget, “The Chaplain Stood with a Smoking Pistol in His Hand,”
illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Gloria Scott,” Strand Magazine, April 1893.
Fig. 50. Sidney Paget, “We Found Him Face Downwards in a Little Green Scummed Pool,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Five Orange Pips,” Strand Magazine, November 1891.
Fig. 51. Sidney Paget, “He Mad Neither Sound nor Motion,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” Strand Magazine, February 1892.
Fig. 52. Sidney Paget, “He Unwound the Handkerchief, and Held out His Hand,”
illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb,”
Strand Magazine, March 1892.
Fig. 53. Sidney Paget, “There was No Powder-blackening on the Clothes,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Reigate Squire,” Strand Magazine, June 1893.
Fig. 54. Illustrator unknown, “Murder at Buck’s Row,” The Illustrated Police News, September 8th 1888.
Fig. 55. Sidney Paget, “He Examined Them Minutely,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box,” Strand Magazine, January 1893.
Fig. 56. Sidney Paget, “Martin Hewitt,” illustration for Arthur Morrison, “The Lenton Croft Robberies,” Strand Magazine, March 1894
Fig. 57. Sidney Paget, “Pitted Precisely,” illustration for Arthur Morrison, “The Case of Mr. Foggatt,” Strand Magazine, May 1894.
Fig. 58. Alfred Pearse, “’Is the Lady Known to Me?’,” illustration for L. T. Meade,
“Diary of the Doctor,” Strand Magazine, August 1893.
Fig. 59. Alfred Pearse, “I ain’t A-Going Hang this Man,” illustration for Grant Allen,
“Jerry Stokes,” Strand Magazine, March 1891.
Fig. 60. Alfred Pearse, “Jerry Watched Him Closely,” illustration for Grant Allen,
“Jerry Stokes,” Strand Magazine, March 1891.
Fig. 61. H. R. Millar, illustrations for Emile Souvestre, “Drak the Fairy,” Strand Magazine, January 1892.
Fig. 62. Sidney Paget, “The Bronze Monster Stuck Him Dead,” illustration for Julian Sermet, “The Rosemonde,” Strand Magazine, November 1894.
Fig. 63. Sidney Paget, “Wandering away to the Deserted Sea-Shore,” illustration for Armand Silvestre, “The Storm,” Strand Magazine, March 1895.
Fig. 64. Joseph Bell (1837-1911).
Fig. 65. Walter Stanley Paget (1863-1935).
Fig. 66. Illustrator unknown, “The Sign of the Four,” Bristol Observer, June 7th 1890.
Fig. 67. Sidney Paget wearing a deerstalker.
Fig. 68. Joseph Bell with his deerstalker and inverness cape.
Fig. 69. Arthur Berthelet (dir.), Sherlock Holmes, 1916. Courtesy of Essanay Studios.
Fig. 70. Sidney Lanfield (dir.), The Hound of Baskervilles, 1939. Courtesy of 20th Fox Century.
Fig. 71. Sidney Paget, “For a Long Time He Remained There,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Boscombe Valley Mystery,” Strand Magazine, October 1891.
Fig. 72. Sidney Paget, “He Curled Himself up in His Chair,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Red-Headed League,” Strand Magazine, August 1891.
Fig. 73. Sidney Paget, “The Pipe was Still Between His Lips,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Man with the Twisted Lip,” Strand Magazine, December 1891.
Fig. 74. Sidney Paget, “All Afternoon He Sat in the Stall,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Red-Headed League,” Strand Magazine, August 1891.
Fig. 75. Sidney Paget, “I Found Sherlock Holmes Half Asleep,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Case of Identity,” Strand Magazine, September 1891.
Fig. 76. Sidney Paget, “His Eyes Bent Upon the Glow of the Fire,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Five Orange Pips,” Strand Magazine, November 1891.
Fig. 77. Sidney Paget, “Holmes Shook His Head Gravely,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches,” Strand Magazine, June 1892.
Fig. 78. Doyle with Ellie Norwood, detail from Alex Werner (ed.), Sherlock Holmes:
The Man Who Never Lived and Will Never Die, London: Ebury Press, 2014, p. 208.
Fig. 79. Michael Cox (producer), The Man with the Twisted Lip, August 13th 1986.
Courtesy of ITV Granada.
Fig. 80. Michael Cox (producer), The Red-Headed League, September 22nd 1985.
Courtesy of ITV Granada.
Fig. 81. Michael Cox (producer), The Naval Treaty, May 8th 1984. Courtesy of ITV Granada.
Fig. 82. Sidney Paget, “What a Lovely Thing a Rose Is,” illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Naval Treaty,” Strand Magazine, October 1893.
Fig. 83. Michael Cox (executive producer), The Silver Blaze, April 13th 1988.
Courtesy of ITV Granada.
Fig. 84. Kanetsugu Kodama (dir.), Case Closed: The Phantom of Baker Street, 2002.
Courtesy of Toho Co. Ltd.
Fig. 85. Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba, Death Note Volume 2: Confluence, 2004.
Fig. 86. Guy Ritchie, Sherlock Holmes, 2009. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.
Fig. 87. Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat (creators), Sherlock, season one, 2010.
Courtesy of BBC One.
Fig. 88. Douglas Mackinnon (dir.), The Abominable Bride, Janurary 1st 2016. Courtesy of BBC One.
Fig. 89. Douglas Mackinnon (dir.), The Abominable Bride, Janurary 1st 2016.
Courtesy of BBC One.
Fig. 90. Douglas Mackinnon (dir.), The Abominable Bride, January 1st 2016.
Courtesy of BBC One.