I recently purchased two books specifically because they had bookplates of Edgar Wadsworth Smith in them.
Smith was a giant of the Sherlockian movement and one of the most important in the formative years of the Baker Street Irregulars. Among other things, Smith founded the Baker Street Journal. His demise was considered sudden and premature.
I cannot find any record of what happened to Smith's library of Sherlockian books (nor have I seen an inventory of it), but have seen one or two other books with a Smith bookplate in them. For example, this Grolier Club article on early Holmes editions includes one with a Smith bookplate (https://grolierclub.omeka.net/exhibits/show/sherlock-holmes/adventures-memoirs).
The bookplate itself was created by Walter Klinefelter, and is included in Klinefelter's book on Sherlockian bookplates which you can read about at Ray Betzner's blog (https://www.vincentstarrett.com/blog/2015/1/24/books-and-bipeds-the-2015-baker-street-irregulars-dinner-weekend).
The first book is The Croxley Master, published in the US by McClure, Phillips & Co. in 1907.
The second book is 'Spotlight on a Simple Case, or, Wiggins Who Was That Horse I Saw You With Last Night' by Robert S. Morgan. The book was published privately at the Cedar Tree Press (Wilmington, DE), and includes an illustration by Smith. Curiously, the first fifty copies (of 500 numbered) were stated to be signed by the 'Author and Artists' but my copy owned by Smith was number 54 despite being an illustrator (the other illustration was provided by Arthur Josephson).
Both books have the same bookplate 'feature' - the bookplate is free. It is very clear that the bookplate matches the book, as the 'glue' (looks more like a paste) that Smith liberally applied to the back of the bookplate leaves a perfect matching impression. I'll leave them 'tipped in'.
