Concept and Art

The Detective Edition is limited to 200 numbered and signed copies, featuring numerous features that make it quite unique. It consists of 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

This edition comes in a solander case, featuring the title on the front part of the case as well as the title engraved in brown suede letter on the spine. Inside it is lined with beige plush, keeping the book well protected from the outside elements.

The book is bound in the finest lambskin brown suede leather with a cutout in shape of Sherlock’s profile on the front cover, featuring a tartan fabric below, while the title of the book is engraved on the spine.

Once you open the book, you’ll be met by handmade paste 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.

As previously mentioned, the whole run has 200 numbered 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.

Production and Materials

This edition features many unique design elements to achieve the quintessential numbered edition of Sherlock Holmes short story collection.

The solander case is draped in premium book cloth and has numerous special design details. It is lined with rich plush from the inside and features blind and gold blocking on the front and brown suede leather on the spine of the case.

The book is bound in finest brown lambskin suede leather, sourced from Didier Lieutard in France, which was then laser cut on the front to feature Sherlock’s profile. This was done with goal to reveal the fabric featuring a tartan pattern below, giving the famous detective his distinctive look in a new way. To keep the spine interesting, laser engraving was used to form the title.

Marbled endpapers were handmade using two sets of colours to achieve a delightful 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 numbered edition of Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of a Dozen Favourites truly special.

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.