Chair and violin

This exhibit is annotated “…a badly played one”. This is a partial quote from A Study in Scarlet. The full quote, from Dr Watson, is  “"A well-played violin is a treat for the gods -- a badly-played one ----"

These items are part of the Conan Doyle Collection started by Richard Lancelyn Green. Lancelyn Green began his collection of Sherlockiana when he was about 7 years old. The collection included his version of 221b Baker Street in an attic room of his home at Paulton Hall. His collection included material bought for a few shillings at junk shops as well as items from the family's own collection of Victoriana. Lancelyn Green also assembled a literary collection and added any edition of Doyle's output he came across, as well as posters, ephemera and novelty items with a Sherlock Holmes theme or Doyle association. By his death Lancelyn Green had been collecting voraciously for more than 40 years and without doubt possessed the largest collection of Doyleiana held privately (and probably the largest such collection that ever could exist now, as it has been bequeathed to the City of Portsmouth).

Find out more about Richard Lancelyn Green