The Sign of Four
by Doyle, Arthur Conan
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Good+/No Jacket
- Seller
-
Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London: Spencer Blackett, 1890. [5], 2-283pp, [1]. Original cloth, title, author and publisher in gilt to spine, title and author in gilt to upper cover, black blocked border to covers with fleuron corner pieces. Spine slightly darkened and leaned, small hole repaired at head of spine (near the 'f' of 'of' in the title, minor rubbing to spine ends and extremities, corners lightly bumped. Paper inner joints slightly split, a couple of pages a little carelessly opened, small tear to fore edge margin of pages 199/200, one or two light spots, but generally fairly bright and clean. Frontispiece, by Charles Henry Malcolm Kerr (see Houfe, page 196), lacks the tissue guard, and without publisher's catalogue to rear found in some copies. W.H. Smith and Son blind stamp to ffep, with armorial bookplate of Gloucester to front pastedown. The first issue cloth with 'Spencer Blackett's Standard Library' to foot of spine, with the misprints '13' on the contents page and 'w shed' on page 56. Now housed in a cloth drop back box made by Temple Bookbinders, with author and title to spine and upper cover. The second Sherlock Holmes novel, uncommonly bright and in the first issue cloth. 'The Sign of Four' was written as a result of a dinner at the Langham Hotel, where Lippincott's agent J.M Stoddart had dinner with Conan Doyle, an Irish M.P. named Gill, and a certain Oscar Wilde, who also agreed to write for the magazine, and produced 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' (see Green and Gibson, 'A Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle', page 40). Green and Gibson A7 . First Edition. Hardback. Good+/No Jacket. Illus. by Kerr, Charles. 8vo.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Temple Rare Books (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 001501
- Title
- The Sign of Four
- Author
- Doyle, Arthur Conan
- Illustrator
- Kerr, Charles
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Good+
- Jacket Condition
- No Jacket
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- Publisher
- Spencer Blackett
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1890
- Size
- 8vo
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Keywords
- Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, Modern Firsts, Detetctive Fiction, Sherlock, Sign of Four
Terms of Sale
Temple Rare Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Temple Rare Books
About Temple Rare Books
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- FFEP
- A common abbreviation for Front Free End Paper. Generally, it is the first page of a book and is part of a single sheet that...
- Rubbing
- Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Bookplate
- Highly sought after by some collectors, a book plate is an inscribed or decorative device that identifies the owner, or former...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Fore Edge
- The portion of a book that is opposite the spine. That part of a book which faces the wall when shelved in a traditional...