These genuine scrimshaw engraved (Sherlock Holmes;221 Baker St.; London England) are made to order by an artist in another state (this usually takes a couple of weeks). By a mistake in our inventory management, we happen to have two of these unique magnifying glasses currently in stock and we can deliver them right away. If interested, Please CLICK HERE

Our exposé of the Andriacco and Winter's trip to Meiringen attracted a bit of attention. First, we received an e-note from our friend, Warren Randall, who pointed out that in his publication Prescott's Press (last December; #50) he had previously published coverage of the Andriaccos' "Reichenbach Pilgrimage." Our apology, Warren, we did not know of your previous publication until you pointed it out to us. It was certainly not our intention to step on your journalistic scoop. After Warren mentioned it, Dan Andriacco showed us edition #50 of Prescott's Press and Randall's coverage of the "expedition" was exemplary.

"All I Need To Know I Learned From Sherlock Holmes" T-Shirt
Please CLICK HERE or on the graphic at your left.

"Sherlock Holmes Lives" T-Shirt
Please CLICK HERE or on the graphic at your right.

"Many Faces of Sherlock Holmes" T-Shirt
"Original Strand Drawings in 221B" T-Shirt
"Holmes Family Coat-of-Arms" T-Shirt
"Watson Family Coat-of-Arms" T-Shirt
"Hound of the Baskervilles" T-Shirt
"Sherlock Holmes Lives!" T-Shirt
"The Game's Afoot in a Dark Alley" T-Shirt
"He Thought, Therefore I am" T-Shirt (in Latin, yet! A "show stopper" at meetings!)

RE: Meiringen (again)

Our longtime friend in London, Hugh Scullion, took exception to our reference to the legend that meringue was invented in the Swiss town of Meiringen. Here are his comments
(much of which he attributes to Wikipedia):

"The notion that meringue was invented in the Swiss town of Meiringen by an Italian chef named Gasparini is contested. It is more certain that the name meringue for this confection first appeared in print in François Massialot's cookbook of 1692. The word meringue first appeared in English in 1706 in an English translation of Massialot's book. Two seventeenth-century English manuscript books of recipes give instructions for confections that are recognisable as meringue, though called "white biskit bread" in the book of recipes started in 1604 by Lady Elinor Fettiplace (c. 1570 - c. 1647) of Appleton in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), or called "pets" in the manuscript of collected recipes written by Lady Rachel Fane (1612/13 - 1680), of Knole, Kent."

"Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last."

The newest (and final) volume in Les Klinger's Sherlock Holmes Reference Library
CLICK HERE
Previously sold out, but we have a new shipment of Apocrypha now in stock!

The very popular newest pastiche from Jeff Falkingham
CLICK HERE

The newest from Britain's Breese Books (no, Mr Holmes doesn't take the morphine!)
CLICK HERE

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson at Singapore's exclusive and luxurious Raffles Hotel!
CLICK HERE

We were delighted to find that our little discussion of English monies was of interest to so many of you (thank you). We received the following commentary from Margaret Owens in Oswestry, Shropshire, UK (she previously lived and taught in Reigate, Surrey, but said that she knew no squires there):
"I much enjoyed the section on old British currency. Some extras: The old sign for penny was d (from Latin denarius). Except when referring to the actual penny coin, the e in "penny" tended to be pronounced as a neutral "uh" sound. The 3d coin was usually known as a threepenny bit (pronounced thruppny or even fruppny by the lower classes in London and thruppunny by more careful speakers). A 6d coin was a sixpenny bit, pronounced sixpunny. Pence after a number was usually pronounced more like punce - 2d was pronounced tuppunce and 4d fourpunce. Again Londoners who spoke with glottal stops would have shortened the word: fourpns. Sixpence, threepence, fourpence and so on were always written as one word. 2d would have been written as twopence, unless in recorded speech, when it would have been spelt as it sounded."
Ms. Owens also addressed the problem of why "2 and 6" constituted a half-crown, but (as we mentioned, I believe, we were told by an a very authoritative source, that 5 shillings was never referred to as "a crown."). Ms. Owens told us:
"A crown coin circulated in medieval and tudor times but had gone by the 17th/18th century. Five shillings would have been a huge amount of money so few would have been minted. But the coin worth half a crown survived or at least the name did. The coin was called "a half crown" but if you were charged that amount in a shop you would be asked for 'half a crown'".
Also
"During medieval times foreign gold coins circulated in England - literally they were worth their weight in gold and were used interchangeably by merchants with British . One Italian coin that arrived here was the florin (from Florence). Eventually the name florin got transferred to the 2 shilling coin and survived until decimalisation. There was no guinea coin. Guineas (guinea = 1 pound + one shilling) were used to price up-market goods such as fur coats and couture clothing but had to be converted into pounds and shilling for payment purposes. The slang term "bob" was frequently used (not by ladies) for amounts under £1 and sometimes for larger sums - e.g., 30 bob was £1/10/0 - one pound ten shillings or one pound ten. The words shillings and pence were often omitted in speech - so two and threepence, three and six, one pound four and eleven. Shopkeepers speaking to each other sometimes omitted the pound - e.g., one four eleven. Prices in shops frequently ended in 11d. Stockings cost 2/11, cotton summer dress fabric by the yard 3/11 or 4/11 (1950s and 60s). The explanation I was once given was the prevention of theft by shop assistants: customers had to be given 1d change, so shop assistants had to put the money in the till."

(We do have some additional inputs re: British monies which we will offer in the future.)

BTW, mentioning Jeff Falkingham's new pastiche, In Search of the Source, brings to mind the fact that he has found for us a few copies of his very popular previous work, Sherlock Holmes and the Courthouse Caper. Mr. Falkingham has been kind enough actually to autograph, personally, all copies of his books which we offer to you. Thanks, Mr. Falkingham, for finding some more copies of Courthouse Caper for us.
CLICK HERE

We mentioned, last month, that our fellow Illustrious Client (of Indianapolis), Steve Doyle, has assumed the responsibility of being the new publisher of The Baker Street Journal! One of his first contributions to the BSJ was to design new graphics for the cover. (Do you know who those guys on the cover are? We had to ask Steve.) The picture on your right shows Steve with David Stuart Davies (Steve is on your left) at the Gillette to Brett Indianapolis Symposium 2.

Steve said about BSJ:
"The Baker Street Journal invites all Sherlockians to subscribe to our humble journal. It was Edgar Smith, the Journal’s first editor, who said 'The proposition to which it was inaugurally dedicated is that there is still much to be said about the scene in Baker Street, and that there will always be those who will be moved to say it.' That sentiment is still as true now, over sixty years later, as it was when the Journal was first founded. The Baker Street Journal remains the elder statesman of Sherlockian periodicals, and is still the home of the finest “Writings about the Writings.” We look forward to having you, a kindred spirit, join us in fellowship with your subscription to The Baker Street Journal. The Baker Street Journal has a new look, but still delivers the best in Sherlockian scholarship. The Game is Still Afoot! " To communicate with BSJ, you are invited to CLICK HERE!

We have sold completely out of this great book from Seattle's The Sound of the Baskervilles scion, but Terri and David Haugen are kindly letting us have more copies to replenish our supply. We can still take your order with a minimum additional wait for delivery.
CLICK HERE

 

But we still have a few copies of the popular:

Sherlock Holmes and the Plague of Dracula

Please
CLICK HERE

Please keep in mind the Dayton (Ohio) Sherlock Holmes/ACD Symposium scheduled for May 15 - 17. You may reach, the Symposium Director, Cathy Gill, via E-mail by clicking her name. Cathy can see to it that you can get a registration form on-line, if you wish. We feel sure that many of our subscribers have never been to a major regional or national Sherlockian gathering - they are a lot of fun and we do encourage you to try one just for the heck of it and to meet some of your fellow Sherlockians!
Also, Susan Diamond has asked us to remind you of the Watsonian Weekend scheduled for Oct. 31 - Nov. 1. The president of The Watsonians (Susan) can be emailed by clicking here. (It is now probably too late to register for the Chattanooga Gathering, it'll be in a week. or so - if you haven't registered, you've missed a good one - maybe next year!

We have just been reminded of this year's meeting of The Sherlock Holmes Study in Scarlet Society (STUD) in Chicago. It will be held on May 1 at the Sheraton Four-Points in Schiller Park, IL. Schiller Park is a "near" suburb of Chicago and really close to O'Hare. STUD is, in our opinion, the premier Sherlockian scion in the Midwest; it has attracted attendance and membership from all around the world. The new STUDmaster believes that STUD is too precious a gathering to continue to be restricted to "members only," hence, this year, for the first time the spring STUD meeting will be open to the greater Sherlockian Community. Nominations for membership in this prestigious organization will be received by the STUDmaster, as usual. The STUDmaster has gathered an outstanding program for this year's STUD dinner, i.e., the first guest speaker will be Les Klinger, BSI whose talk will be "Annotating Dracula, Sherlock Holmes and Everything Else." Mr. Klinger, as we're sure that most of you know, is the author of his Edgar Award winning 3 volume "Annotated Sherlock Holmes" and his 10-volume "Sherlock Holmes Reference Library (the most recent volume of which is "The Apocrypha of Sherlock Holmes" - CLICK HERE to see). Klinger's new book "The New Annotated Dracula" has just been released and has also been nominated for an Edgar. If that isn't enough, STUD's other guest speaker will be Laurie King, whose Mary Russell is most hightly regarded among Sherlockians. Laurie's new book "The Language of Bees" has also just been released and is the latest in the Mary Russell series. The STUDmaster is still receiving reservations, but time is short. You may contact Bill Sawisch, the new STUDmaster, by CLICKING HERE.

Recently our supplier in the UK called to advise us that he had found a forgotten supply of this packet of 32 postcard-sized photos of Mr. Jeremy Brett, Mr. David Burke, Mr. Edward Hardwicke, and other stars and scenes taken from the actual set of the famous Granada TV series seen in the US on Public TV and, more recently, on A&E Network. We had these photos for you a few years ago, and were told that the supply had been exhausted. Then, our British supplier informed us that he had an additional supply. We bought all we could afford and, now, we are pleased to again be able to offer them to you again, as many of you requested.
Please Click Here

We have been advised by both Dr. Marylynne McKay and Joseph Coppola that the Beacon Society web site is again up and running at www.beaconsociety.com.

Brian Grimshaw, a Sherlockian friend from the UK, has a most interesting web site devoted to a marvelous array of hard-to-find (some even rare) Sherlockian books as well as other interesting collectibles. You are invited to visit Brian's site. Just click on the graphic above.

And spring will be very happy, as evidenced by these late March photos we received:

Left, lovely Peoria in March; Right, those delightful Sherlockian twins
up to their necks in Colorado sunshine!! The Peoria photo was sent by our friend Bob Burr in Peoria. Katherine Keniston, who is also on PeoBob's e-mailing list, quipped, "It looks like our Easter eggs will have to be delivered this year by a snowshoe hare." (PS: It has snowed again in Peoria since this photo was taken!)

We were just browsing our own web site and went out to our "features" page and, found much to our surprise, that we haven't posted a new article from any of our subscribers for several years. If anyone has a short article, say 500 - 1000 words, or so, on virtually any Sherlockian topic which might be of interest to your fellow Sherlockians, we'd be pleased to see it for possible addition to our "features" page. The page is at http://www.sherlock-holmes.com/feature.htm so if you would like to take a look to see what kind of articles we have published there before, you are invited to do so.