My Musgrave Monograph monomania

My favorite scion publications come from the Northern Musgraves. Sadly, the Musgraves wound down 15 years before I discovered Sherlockiana. There were two primary periodicals published by the Northern Musgraves. The first was a regular newsletter called "The Ritual", and the second an 'annual' titled "The Musgrave Papers". Both publications contain absolutely outstanding Sherlockian articles, and issues can easily be purchased on sites such as eBay. 

There were a number of other Northern Musgraves publications, but my favorites are the "Musgrave Monograph" series. I plan for this short post to be the start of a longer article exploring this monographs. As the series title suggests, each publication is a short monograph on a single topic.

In this first post on the topic I'll simply list the monographs in publication order, and their cover image where available on the internet. If I manage to purchase these I'll be able to take photographs of each cover and update this post (quite a few have no photos on Google image search!). Please let me know about errors - I've cobbled the list below together based on searches.

The Musgrave Monograph Series.  Clearly this is currently a draft!

Musgrave Monograph Number One. Pacing The Musgrave Ritual, Carol Whitlam, 1990.

Musgrave Monograph Number Two. Diving down into the cellar : uses of photography in the canon, Matthew Booth, 1991.

Musgrave Monograph Number Three. "Ready when you are, Mr. Rathbone" : a review of the Universal Holmes films, Roger Johnson, 1995.

Musgrave Monograph Number Four. 'I looked in at Mecca ...': an insight into Sherlock Holmes' visit to Mecca, Anne Jordan, 1993.

Musgrave Monograph Number Five. 140 different varieties : a review of tobacco in the Canon, John Hall, 1994.

Musgrave Monograph Number Six. The misadventure of the Sherlock Holmes pilot : an account of the making of the first pilot film for a Sherlock Holmes television series, Richard Lancelyn Green, 1995.

Musgrave Monograph Number Seven. Some knowledge of Baritsu: An investigation of the Japanese system of wrestling used by Sherlock Holmes, Hirayama Yuichi and John Hall, 1996.

Musgrave Monograph Number Eight. Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle and the British Empire : an investigation into Conan Doyle's links with the British Empire as expressed through his Sherlockian and other literature, Jeffrey Richards, 1997.

Musgrave Monograph Number ???. Guilty of several monographs : the published writings of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, John Hall, 1996.

Musgrave Monograph Number Nine. 221 BBC : writing for the world's first complete dramatised canon : (with some observations upon previous radio appearances of Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson), Bert Coules, 1998.

Musgrave Monograph Number Ten. The somnambulist and the detective : Vincent Starrett and Sherlock Holmes, Susan Rice, 2000.

A William Gillette postcard

I recently purchased this postcard of William Gillette on eBay. I knew nothing else about the postcard, but wanted to have a picture of Gillette dressed as Sherlock Holmes, and this image was an extremely common one. In fact, it's the image used on the Wikipedia page for Gillette (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gillette).

The postcard. The white text at the bottom of the photograph says "William Gillette" at center, and "Rotary Photo Co Ltd...". In handwriting at the bottom right of the postcard is "28/9/03 WJG". That translates to the 28th September 1903, and I should point out that Gillette's middle name was Hooker, and the initials WJG are not William Gillette's.

What I did not expect based on the description was that the reverse side of the postcard is addressed at stamped:

Reverse side of postcard. At left the message reads "Hope you are quite well to-day. W.J.G." and at right it is address to "Madame Sharrah, 55 Spring Bank, Hull". Hull is a city in East Yorkshire. 

The stamp and postmark. Consistent with other information on the postcard, it is stamped "3 PM SP 28 03" and "YORK". 

Well the initials WJG are enigmatic, and all I know is that the postcard was mailed from somewhere in Yorkshire to Hull (in Yorkshire). 

Who was Madame Sharrah? Thanks to the Friends of Hull Cemetery website (friendsofhullgeneralcemetery.com/inspirational-women) I have a little information Madame Sharrah (full name Mary Alice Sharrah) lived from 1863-1940 and was a music, drama and theatre teacher. "For teaching purposes she kept her maiden name of Sharrah, and referred to herself as ‘Madame Sharrah’. As well as music, she also taught drama and elocution, instructing many local talents such as Annie Croft, her son David Croft of Dad’s Army etc, Doris White and many others... lived at their large house at 55 Spring Bank, which still exists".

I'm interested in how common these Gillette postcards were. Gillette began a sold-out 216-performance run at London's Lyceum Theatre in September 1901 (www.gillettecastlefriends.org/a-gillette-timeline) but I can find no evidence that Gillette performed in York in the UK during or prior to 1903. Perhaps the postcard was brought back from London, or perhaps it was available for sale across the UK given Gillette's (and Sherlock's) fame. The postcard appears to be of trifling importance as a message, but was clearly valued enough by Madame Sharrah to be retained, and it survives to this day.

Denny Dobry's open house, 30 Sep 2023

Yesterday (Saturday 30 Sep) I drove up to the Reading PA area to visit Denny Dobry's remarkable open house. Featured was a tour of his 221b Baker Street sitting room recreation, and a Book Fair for the Benefit of the Baker Street Irregulars Trust. Of course, there were many who came along for the open day and it was great to see friends and make some new one. From memory I recall people coming from PA, NJ, MD, VA, NH, RI, DE and TX and there of course many others!

Thank you  so much to Denny and Joann for their kindness and hospitality.

The Baker Street study was truly amazing. The rooms have received plenty of attention in Sherlockian media, so I'll place a couple of links here to start, then give a little description of a few observations.

Dan Andriacco blog interview with Denny:  http://bakerstreetbeat.blogspot.com/2020/01/interviewing-denny-dobry-of-221b.html  

Fourth Garrideb blog post on recreations: https://fourthgarrideb.com/author/denny-dobry/

Article in the Reading Eagle newspaper: https://www.readingeagle.com/2017/02/15/floor-plans-his-love-of-sherlock-holmes-led-to-a-basement-makeover/

This is a stock photo of Denny's 221B Study. Better than any photo I could take with my iPhone.

So with those articles, I can say that Denny's recreation is remarkable. When you head down the stairs (17?) and turn right, you enter another world. One can wander the room, examining items that reflect the way to room is described in the stories, and planted with 'easter egg' evidence items from each of the 60 stories. The photos I've taken tell a better story - I think my favorite features were the books on the shelves (for example the encyclopedia copied out in the 'Red Headed League'), and the windows with a panorama of the street view outside with speakers playing sounds from the street such as the clip-clop of hooves passing by.

I'll start with the introduction that Denny gave on the room, and how it came to be:

Paul Churchill is the Sherlockian in MD that Denny mentions. Paul also created the 'Evidence Boxes' that are held by the 'Watson' Tin Box' scion of Ellicott City MD - I recently posted about Paul and his artifacts here: https://221bcooee.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-evidence-boxes-of-watsons-tin-box.html 

Denny displaying and explaining the air rifle from 'The Empty House'.

The best shot I could take of the entire room. 

Of course I took particular interest in the deal-topped table where chemical experiments take place. The table is conveniently located next to one of the windows looking down on Baker Street, which helps with fumes.

At the other end of the room is Watson's writing desk, with his indexed volumes easily within reach.

A hypodermic needle and syringe, able to administer a 7% solution.....

A magnifying glass atop the writing desk.

A range of items are close at hand on the table near the fireplace, including a pipe, a copy of the Strand, a revolver, and a copy of The Times.

 

The second part of the visit was the Book Fair. A huge area of the basement is arranged for storing and displaying books and other items. These items are donated by people (for example, who are down-sizing their collections) and proceeds of the sale benefits the BSI Trust (www.bsitrust.org). 

This is a stock photo of Denny's 221B Study. Amazingly, this photo does not do the area justice - the back area has a huge book and magazine area.

So what did I buy? Full disclosure, I was going in very fiscally restrained. The event took place on the day the government was going to shut down and i was VERY worried about finances. But I found a few things I was really pleased about.

The Nezire Zanmai International. I've been collecting these for a while now - there are 14 volumes of this journal, and I'm now only missing one issue. After two or three issues, the journal was re-named to The Shoso-In Bulletin. You can learn more about this Japanese Sherlockian publication here: https://shoso.ninja-web.net/Shoso-inBulletin/index.html

ACD - The Journal of the Arthur Conan Doyle Society. I've always wanted to read an issue of this journal, so was glad to find three, so that I can learn more about Doylean scholarship generally.

Irene's Cabinet is the annual Sherlockian publication of Watson's Tin Box of Ellicott City. As a member, I'd hoped to start gathering back-issues at some point. This was a good start, including issues 1, 2 and 3. The really beautiful thing about the first three issues is that almost every article author has signed to Table of Contents, including Paul Churchill (referenced by Denny above).

I really enjoy digging into the early publications of ACD in the Strand Magazine. I have a digital copy of this book from the author Phil Bergem, and was very glad to find a printed copy. Now all I need to do is collect The Strand Magazine itself.... 

William Gillette, America's Sherlock Holmes. I've never been to Gillette Castle, but it's very high on my list. I'm looking forward to reading this book.

So yes, I could have purchased ten times more than I did, but I am really glad to have had the opportunity to visit Denny, Joann and his family, and can't thank the Dobry family enough for their hospitality. There will, I am sure, be Open House events in future years and I'll be there!