Concept and Art

The Clue Edition represents the very essence of the great fictional detective, featuring the twelve short stories that were deemed favourite by the Arthur Conan Doyle himself.

The Adventure of the Speckled Band
The Adventure of the Red-Headed League
The Adventure of the Dancing Men
The Adventure of the Final Problem
The Adventure of a Scandal in Bohemia
The Adventure of the Empty House
The Adventure of the Five Orange Pips
The Adventure of the Second Stain
The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot
The Adventure of the Priory School
The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual
The Adventure of the Reigate Squires

It is limited to 26 lettered and signed copies, featuring several special features that make it quite unique. Of the three editions, this one is aimed to be as the ultimate one, providing numerous features worthy of such an edition.

This edition comes in a custom made box with a front that pays homage to Sherlock’s home at 221B Baker Street, London. This was inspired by the fact that most of his clients found themselves at this address seeking his skill and his wisdom. The door is fully functional, so you can grab the knob and open it, only to be greeted by the very representation of Sherlock in form of a book. Once you take the book out, you’ll notice that the bottom of the box features a wallpaper pattern that, again, pays homage to the one in Sherlock’s home, but also featuring a hidden surprise there as well.

The book is bound in the finest brown goatskin leather, featuring a spine blocked in gold foil and a magnifying glass blocked into the front cover. But it’s not there just for show, because you can take it out and use it as you read the book. This will be particularly useful when you reach each of the illustrations, because they hold numerous details that are difficult to observe with a naked eye.

Once you open the book, you’ll be met by handmade marbled endpapers done by our marbling department. They are inspired by the tartan pattern designed specially for this edition by Manuel Šumberac, who has also illustrated all the artwork, including the drop caps, for this title. The illustrations for this edition are truly remarkable, something that we have never done before. Since this is a short story collection, it made no sense to look for key plot points; instead the idea was to boil down the whole story into a singular illustration, which offered a “blueprint” of the story expressed artistically. Each illustration contains the key elements of the story, which is intended to beckon the reader to return and give it another look to better understand the story.

As you go through the chapters, you’ll see there are beautiful themed drop caps designed for each story, as well as the unique title for each of them. Once you need a break from reading, you can use the bookmark shaped like a magnifying glass, but is fully functional as well, because it has a plastic lens with 3x magnification, providing you with a secondary magnifying lens.

As previously mentioned, the whole run has 26 lettered and signed copies, with a few additional publisher’s copies for the key participants of the projects that will never go to sale, making this a true rarity.

Should we venture into Sherlock novels in the future, this book grants matching rights for those editions, creating a separate matching rights track.

Photography: Danijel Berković & Dino Šertović.

Production and Materials

For this edition of Sherlock Holmes to become a reality, we had to do a lot of unusual things.

The box is made from various materials, mostly plywood and it features a door on the front. The door is decorated with numerous details in order to pay a proper homage to Sherlock’s home. Inside, it is lined with soft plush material meant to protect the book and on the very bottom it is engraved with laser, paying tribute to the pattern on the wallpaper in Sherlock’s living room.

The book is bound in finest brown goatskin leather with an aniline finish, sourced from Didier Lieutard in France, and has gold foil blocked on the spine and a real magnifying glass blocked into the front cover. The magnifying glass is held by a magnet hidden inside the front cover, so that it can be safely removed at any time without fear of it falling off.

Marbled endpapers were handmade using numerous colours, some of them metallic, to achieve a stunning pattern. The book is printed letterpress with our very own Heidelberg Cylinder SBG on Hahnemühle 100% cotton paper (140g), which is made specifically for us in this weight. The paper has a luxurious texture and works extremely well when used for letterpress printing, which gives it a little bit of a so-called “bite”. All twelve illustrations featured inside are printed offset.

Finally, the book was smyth sewn, then glued afterwards to provide for maximum durability. For this title Baskerville typography seemed like the perfect choice.

The magnifying glass bookmark is produced by caching a plastic magnifying lens between two Fedrigoni Savile Row papers, creating a functional bookmark.

All of these details make this a truly unique edition of Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of a Dozen Favourites.

Shipping

Since we put a lot of effort into creation of our books, we like to see them delivered safe and sound (and fast!) straight into your hands. That is why we ship with DHL Express, which means the books will be trackable at all times and they’ll arrive straight into your hands (unless you state otherwise). This also means they should arrive within 7-10 business days at the latest, but they’ll usually arrive within five business days, depending at what time of the day you made your order.

Please be aware that although books are not subject to customs fees in many countries, they might be in yours. This may mean they’ll be held at customs for inspection, delaying the delivery time, and you may be charged a customs fee or import tax or similar. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about customs clearance – customs rules of each country make the importer (the buyer—you!) responsible for these fees. Some of our customers have managed to reduce these fees by opting to do the import documentation themselves at the customs office instead of letting the courier (DHL) do it for them.