Beeton's Magazine in British newspapers

I while back I posted about an Australian newspaper article that referenced the existence of the 1887 Beeton's Christmas Annual in Melbourne in 1933. There is a sentence that captured my attention in that article:

The Sun,  Sunday 19 Mar 1933 
A current list of English first editions, while not quoting a price, states that the Annual is "Practically unique, and copies seldom to be found." So it may be of interest to note that the copy from which the illustration is reproduced was recently picked up for three pence on a Melbourne market stall. There are still first edition bargains available to the collector with sufficient enthusiasm — and patience— to hunt them out.

I wanted to know where the quote "Practically unique, and copies seldom to be found" came from. I assume it was from a sale catalog of that listed a Beeton's (such as Magg's Brothers), but I have not tracked it down yet.

Anyway, I wondered whether there were such examples of mentions of the 1887 Beeton's in British newspapers.

Exmouth Journal - Saturday 28 May 1892

Mr. CONAN DOYLE has certainly no reason to complain of the reception of his "Study in Scarlet," which was originally discovered by the late Mr. G. T. Bettany, MA., B.Sc., formerly literary adviser to Messrs. Ward, Lock, Bowden and Co. The MS. of the story (Mr. Conan Doyle's first, by the way), came under Mr. Bettany's notice in the ordinary course of events, but interested him so keenly that be sat up all night to finish it. Probably other people have followed his example since then, for, brought out as Beeton's Christmas Annual, it achieved an immediate success, and now, illustrated by Mr. George Hutchinson, and published in Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Co.'s. Library Series, it has already gone into a large second edition. A Tauchnitz issue has been arranged for, a German translation is just completed, while a French version is pending. Happy indeed is he who succeeds with his initial effort.

In 'The Bookseller' for 17 December 1900, among the rare books for sale is a listing that Ward, Lock & Co are selling a copy of Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887. Or perhaps multiple copies? Did they find a box of them in the warehouse?

Bookseller - Monday 17 December 1900
WARD, LOCK & CO LTD, Salisbury Square, E.C.

Beeton's Christmas Annual, 1887, containing A Study in Scarlet, by A. Conan Doyle.

Articles in 1934 and 1935 highlight the rarity of the issue almost fifty years after publication.

Birmingham Weekly Mercury - Sunday 25 March 1934

A FEW VALUES. Have you an old junk box tucked away? You never know what money it may bring forth. An early copy of "The Times" will fetch a fabulous sum. "Bradshaw's Railway Timetable" as issued in 1839, is worth £100 a copy.

A first edition of "Treasure Island" may bring in anything up to £150, while the supplement to Beeton's Christmas Annual, issued in 1887 at a few pence, is now worth £50, for it contains "A Study in Scarlet", the first Sherlock Holmes story ever written.

Bookseller - Wednesday 16 October 1935

That this interpretation of the term "first edition," in relation to this particular problem, is usually accepted by collectors and the trade is clearly shown by the market price of the Lippincott's Magazine printing of Dorian Gray, as compared with that of the first English edition, the following year. Yet in an exactly analogous case their verdict has been for the other side. The Beeton's Annual printing of A Study in Scarlet is no more a first edition than the Lippincott's printing of Dorian Gray : but it is widely described, priced and sold as the first edition. The fact that the real first edition (1888) is almost impossibly rare may be the reason, but it is not a good reason.

      

As the 1951 London exhibition was being created, important items was sought for display. The organizers apparently could not source a Beeton's Christmas Annual, nor a Strand Magazine with the first short story - so a newspaper article put out the call. Did Adrian Conan Doyle not inherit a Beeton's from ACD? Did ACD own a copy of Beeton's?

A check of the 1951 catalog suggests that a Beeton's may not have been found - but they did exhiit a very rare second edition.

Evening News (London) - Tuesday 15 May 1951

WANTED. For inclusion in the other part of the exhibition two items are urgently sought. One is a copy of Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887, in which the first Sherlock Holmes story, "A Study in Scarlet" appeared; the second is a separate copy of the Strand Magazine for July 1891 in which the first of the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes appeared.

What do you do if you don't have a Beeton's? Advertise in the wanted column! That's what Lord Donegall did - and it may have worked, as he certainly owned at least one copy. I can find at least three examples of this advertisement in newspapers:

Ross-shire Journal - Friday 10 April 1953

PLEASE search your attics for "Study in Scarlet", with 8 illustrations by Charles Doyle: publishers Ward and Lock (1888, paper covered unless privately bound); also Beeton's Xmas Annual 1887; "Sign of Four" Spencer, Blackett (1890, frontispiece by Charles Kerr), and Lippincott's Magazine, Feb 1890, Lord Donegall, Apply, No.41, Journal, Dingwall.

And finally, 1 1972 articles touches on Beeton's and the rarity of the 1887 issue.

Illustrated London News - Thursday 02 November 1978

At least two Beeton's Annuals made a kind of history. The issue for 1872, "The Coming K---" boldly satirized the then Prince of Wales in verse. Such was the enormous demand that copies were changing hands at a sovereign each within a month of publication. Fifteen years later (1887) Beeton published the first Sherlock Holmes story, bound up with a couple of drawing room playlets. Entitled A Study in Scarlet, this shilling booklet is now so rare that a perfect copy might sell for around 1,000 pounds. It was subsequently published again in various editions and was given away with the Windsor Magazine Christmas number, 1895.