CONAN

11pp., 4to. Five are signed by Gustave Tuck, three by Desmond A. Tuck and one by Sir Reginald Tuck (the three men being named on the letterhead, together with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as the company's directors). Four are addressed to Adams personally, four to his firm (with one for the attention of 'Miss Dorothy Clarke'), and one to Bertram Adams, another royal photographer, with whom Adams shared premises at 43 Dover Street, Mayfair. The ornate letterhead, printed in brown, carries royal warrants and an engraving of Raphael House. On aged and worn paper, with slight damp staining.

Four pages, pp.2[2], folio, unbound as issued, two leaves of bifolium separated, sl. chipping and sunning of edges, fold mark, text clear and complete. It includes: P.1 & 2 a history of the appeal (committee meetings etc), and its objectives, concluding "David Masson | Chairman | 27th May 1897."; P.[3] The Committee (Earl of Rosebery, J.M. Barie, Conan Doyle, Henry James, Joseph Bell, Rider Haggard, Thomas Hardy, Edmind Gosse, Rudyard Kipling, Leslie Stephen, etc etc.; p.[4] "First Subscription List" (much the same as Committee.

Twelve pages, cr. 8vo, brown illustrated paper wraps, a little grubby, with fold mark at middle, contents good. Begins with editorial, "The Editor's Chair" in which C.P. Scott (presumably) discusses this Christmas number, revealing, among other things that Conan Doyle had been invited to contribute an "exciting" ghost story but failed them. The issue is signed "Montague" on the front wrap, and C.E. Montague is the subject of an article (with photograph), and author of a letter on the Letters page. No copy on COPAC or in Manchester Univ. Lib. catalogue.

24pp., 8vo, paginated 161-184. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. Roberts contributes 'The Cult of Sherlock'; Frank Swinnerton, 'Holmes - World Figure'; Darwin, 'The Great Holmes Joke'; Howlett and Pointer, 'Holmes on Stage and Screen'; Paget, 'He made Holmes real' ('In this article Winifred Paget writes of her father, Sidney Paget, whose drawings, says Frank Swinnerton on another page, made Holmes "the most universally familiar imaginary figure in two hemispheres'.

End of letter, 11 x 7cm, taped at edges to piece of card, 13.5 x 8cm, good conditon: "Yours very truly | Arthur Conan Doyle".

The Oxford DNB entry on Sir Walter Besant states that, 'Concerned to cultivate better understanding with North America, Besant worked in the last two years of his life for the Atlantic Union.' In fact it was Besant who founded the club in 1900, with Conan Doyle and others, with the object, according to The Times, 22 February 1900, 'of drawing together the various English-speaking peoples and strengthening the bonds of union by the formation of ties of personal friendship among individual members'.

Photographs: All black and white prints. The first (21 x 15 cm) a portrait of Waller (reproduced in Baxendale, p. 26, below). The second (23 x 17 cm) a family photograph of six Edwardian individuals, three younger ones (including a woman and with Waller at centre) standing, and three older men seated. The other six (all 14 x 8.5 cm and taken at the same time) showing Waller and family outdoors: one of him rowing, and one with a smiling woman (presumably his wife). Overall condition of the photographs is fair. They are lightly-aged, with a little creasing here and there.

8vo: xxiv + 120 + viii pp. In original blue printed wraps. Good, in grubby, lightly worn wraps. Thumbprint in margin of one page. Numerous illustrated advertisements at front and rear. Front wrap headed 'TO THE NORTH POLE BY BALLOON! Special Interview with Mr. Andrée.' Many illustrations. Story's piece on Andrée's balloon voyage covers fifteen pages (77-91) and features 25 illustrations and diagrams. Among the other contributions are an installment of Conan Doyle's 'Rodney Stone' and an early illustrated article on X-ray photography, 'The New Photography' by Alfred W. Porter.

Dimensions roughly 26 x 20 cm. Four printed pages, in a bifolium, stapled into coloured illustrated covers. A scarce piece of theatre ephemera, in reasonable condition: creased, with rusted wraps and with one short closed tear to front cover, which carries the words 'Adelphi Theatre. Sole Proprietors, A. & S. Gatti.' and an illustration, painted in an impressionist style, of a fashionable group dining. Stamped 'Saturday Feb 19'. The back cover, also in colour, carries an advertisement for 'Vinolia Toilet Preparations', with an illustration, entitled 'Envy', by 'W.

Dimensions: 17.5 x 13.5 cm. 64 pp. In original coloured paper covers. Priced at 10d, and thus the British edition and not one produced for the foreign market. Good and tight, on browned paper. Attractive image on front cover showing a bemused Holmes puffing on his pipe as he wanders down a country-house corridor whose walls are covered in paintings, while the spectral figure of the hound's head looms above him.Covers lightly worn and slightly damaged by the rusting of the staples. Both stories are told in comic strip form.

12mo: 97 pp. A good, tight copy, on aged paper, in contemporary calf binding gilt. All edges gilt, marble endpapers, dentelles. Binding rubbed and worn. Apparently complete (and certainly complete as bound), containing all four stories listed in the National Library of Ireland entry, but having 97 rather than the 167 pp in that entry. A landmark work in Irish literature, highly regarded as a pioneering attempt to modernize Gaelic narrative.