A Collector’s Lot

[HerlockSholmes]

Strangely enough it’s Conan Doyle Holmes books. By that of course I mean the different editions and prints. It’s mainly down to cash in that I can’t really afford to buy books to read and books to collect, so I only by books that I don’t already own. As you’ll guess many of these versions are very expensive and so unless I win the lottery.....

The 2 autographs are both postcards which I only recently started collecting. I might splash out at Christmas and treat myself to a more expensive autograph. Top of my list are Rathbone and Brett. Doyle is way out of my price range though at £500+. The cheapest Rathbone on ebay is around £150. There is a Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwick for £60 I’m tempted.

i weakened!

Just ordered the Brett/Hardwick.

I blame you Carol for making me think about it.😃

thanks👍

[HerlockSholmes]

Baker made a pretty decent Holmes in my opinion.

[Hikari]

Herlock Sholmes, this is for you . . !

“It is possible that the most misunderstood man upon earth is the collector of books…”
― Vincent Starrett, Penny Wise & Book Foolish
 

He also said, "When we are collecting books, we are collecting happiness."

[HerlockSholmes]

I wouldn’t argue with Starrett👍

[HerlockSholmes]

Another autograph for the collection. I just successfully bid on ebay for a signed portrait of David Burke😃

[Hikari]

17 hours ago, HerlockSholmes said:

Another autograph for the collection. I just successfully bid on ebay for a signed portrait of David Burke😃

Does that mean you got it?  Huzzah!  Though possibly I like David Burke just a tiny bit more than you do.  If I get a signed photo of Edward Hardwicke, you wanna swap? 

[Carol the Dabbler]

1 hour ago, Hikari said:

If I get a signed photo of Edward Hardwicke, you wanna swap? 

If he doesn't want it, I'll take it! 

[HerlockSholmes]

My nerdy glee is showing through I’m afraid. I’ve now got Brett, Hardwicke, Burke, whitehead, Baker and Richardson and Stephen Fry.

Theres a Clive Brooke one for £60 and Eric Porter for around the same. There’s also Una Stubbs for £13. Even Charlton Heston for around £60.

The cheapest Rathbone is around £130 but most are up toward £300.

My next was going to be a Clive Merrison for £20 but I’ve weakened☹️ I wasn’t  going to spend more this month☹️

ive just payed around £14 for a small letter signed by Dame Jean Conan Doyle.😃

Anyone want to buy a kidney😃

No more purchases for a month or so👍

[Arcadia]

Charlton Heston played Sherlock Holmes? Must've missed that one.  

What do you do with your autographs once you have them, Herl? Put them on display, or keep them in a safe and chortle over them in the wee hours?

[HerlockSholmes]

21 hours ago, Arcadia said:

Charlton Heston played Sherlock Holmes? Must've missed that one.  

What do you do with your autographs once you have them, Herl? Put them on display, or keep them in a safe and chortle over them in the wee hours?

Hi Arcadia,

Charlton Heston played Holmes in The Crucifer Of Blood which was based on The Sign Of Four. It’s ok. Heston just didn’t look the part though there have been far worse Holmes’. He also played Holmes in TCOB on stage with  Watson played by Jeremy Brett. I know...I’m a mine of useless information😃

The Ian Richardson one is on display framed along with loads of framed Paget prints and Rathbone/Bruce movie posters and  Peter Cushing movie posters and a PLOSH poster and a Murder By Decree movie poster and 4 silent movie posters and a few photographs of Doyle (and a few Whitechapel Murders posters) and two Brett posters which are above a table containing a deerstalker, a pipe, a carved handled magnifying glass, a Victorian Police whistle, a SH compass, a foot high statuette of Holmes and three smaller ones, and SH beer tankard, and a SH shot glass. And a few other things. You may be able to discern a theme here😃

The other few autographs might go in an album next to my SH postcard album containing 200 postcards😃

Its an illness Arcadia. Even by talking to me on here you might be in danger of catching it so beware😃

[Arcadia]

Cool. What are your museum's hours?

I just can't imagine Charlton Heston as Holmes. At all. Well, I can, but it's a visual I'd rather do without....

[Carol the Dabbler]

10 hours ago, HerlockSholmes said:

Charlton Heston played Holmes in The Crucifer Of Blood which was based on The Sign Of Four. It’s ok. Heston just didn’t look the part though there have been far worse Holmes’. He also played Holmes in TCOB on stage with  Watson played by Jeremy Brett.

I think I'm bothered even more by Brett as Watson, and not simply because he was such a marvelous Holmes.  He just doesn't look like Watson -- unless you go by Paget's illustrations instead of Watson's verbal description of himself in Milverton.  (Same goes for Jude Law, by the way.)

I can believe Heston as Holmes (even though he doesn't fit either the Paget illustrations or Watson's verbal descriptions).  Goodness knows he played enough other larger-than-life characters.  'Course, the accent might have been a problem -- though for all I know he could do British.

[Arcadia]

Yeah, Brett-as-Watson doesn't scan for me either. And I think I've said before that I feel like they got the casting backwards in RDJ's version. Not that I don't enjoy RDJ's version of Holmes; I've pretty much enjoyed him in everything I've seen him in (which, admittedly, isn't that much). But he reminds me more of Charlie Chaplin than Sherlock Holmes. (And didn't Downey play Chaplin too? Hm.)

 

[HerlockSholmes]

10 hours ago, Arcadia said:

Cool. What are your museum's hours?

I just can't imagine Charlton Heston as Holmes. At all. Well, I can, but it's a visual I'd rather do without....

My ‘museum’ would have to be free entry. It  sounds like I have quite a lot (including books) but I don’t really. My main problem is that I have very little free wall space and there are more prints, posters and portraits that I’d like. I’m relying on a lottery win but aren’t we all?👍

[HerlockSholmes]

2 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

I think I'm bothered even more by Brett as Watson, and not simply because he was such a marvelous Holmes.  He just doesn't look like Watson -- unless you go by Paget's illustrations instead of Watson's verbal description of himself in Milverton.  (Same goes for Jude Law, by the way.)

I can believe Heston as Holmes (even though he doesn't fit either the Paget illustrations or Watson's verbal descriptions).  Goodness knows he played enough other larger-than-life characters.  'Course, the accent might have been a problem -- though for all I know he could do British.

It’s always difficult when the actor in question doesn’t ‘resemble’ Holmes. There have been a few portly or stocky Holmes which never really work. Heston gives it a decent go though. I think that he was better than Stewart Grainger (the only big Hollywood legend comparison.) I do have the movie but haven’t seen it for a while. I get the impression that his accent wasn’t terrible but always sounded American. I’ll have to give it another watch. Keep an eye out on the various tv channels as it’s occaisionally aired.

[HerlockSholmes]

51 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

Yeah, Brett-as-Watson doesn't scan for me either. And I think I've said before that I feel like they got the casting backwards in RDJ's version. Not that I don't enjoy RDJ's version of Holmes; I've pretty much enjoyed him in everything I've seen him in (which, admittedly, isn't that much). But he reminds me more of Charlie Chaplin than Sherlock Holmes. (And didn't Downey play Chaplin too? Hm.)

 

Talking of backward casting there was a Holmes movie called The Hands Of A Murderer with the skinny Anthony Andrews as Moriarty and the stocky Edward Woodward as Holmes! Figure that gem of the art of casting out? Andrews might have made a pretty decent Holmes with Woodward as Moriarty or even Watson. Watson was actually played by John Hillerman of Magnum PI fame..

[Arcadia]

Well, to each their own I guess. But I note that none of these portrayals are exactly in the hall of fame.

I understand about walls; I think this house has just as many paintings, scrolls, prints etc. under the beds and in drawers as it has on the walls. Too nice to get rid of, not nice enough to replace what's already up. Clearly the solution is a second home just for the art.

[Carol the Dabbler]

16 hours ago, HerlockSholmes said:

I get the impression that his accent wasn’t terrible but always sounded American.

Some actors are very good at accents (e.g., just about everybody in Black Panther -- e.g., Freeman as an American, and Boseman, an American, as the African-British-accented Panther)  But unless an actor can do a flawless accent, I much prefer that they merely hint at the accent (which may be what Heston did?), or not even try.  It's such a jolt when an accent slips.

OK, YouTube has the trailer and (for a fee) the full film.  Having watched the former, I'd say, yeah, Heston used sort of mildly British-style accent, and wisely did not try to sound fully British.

 

[HerlockSholmes]

5 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Some actors are very good at accents (e.g., just about everybody in Black Panther -- e.g., Freeman as an American, and Boseman, an American, as the African-British-accented Panther)  But unless an actor can do a flawless accent, I much prefer that they merely hint at the accent (which may be what Heston did?), or not even try.  It's such a jolt when an accent slips.

OK, YouTube has the trailer and (for a fee) the full film.  Having watched the former, I'd say, yeah, Heston used sort of mildly British-style accent, and wisely did not try to sound fully British.

 

I think you’re right Carol. The strength of someone’s accent depends on the audience. What might seem a pretty decent American accent to me might sound terrible to you or, at least, obviously false. I think Heston made a decent go at it. The US actor Kevin McCarthy probably decided on the same approach when he played Holmes on radio. The opposite of course is the exaggerated English accent like the one used by Matt Frewer.

[Carol the Dabbler]

14 hours ago, HerlockSholmes said:

I think you’re right Carol. The strength of someone’s accent depends on the audience. What might seem a pretty decent American accent to me might sound terrible to you or, at least, obviously false. I think Heston made a decent go at it. The US actor Kevin McCarthy probably decided on the same approach when he played Holmes on radio. The opposite of course is the exaggerated English accent like the one used by Matt Frewer.

An exaggerated accent, or even an attempt at a full-strength accent runs the risk of sounding like a parody.  I haven't seen Frewer as Holmes, only as Max Headroom.  Isn't he Canadian?  Seems like he should be able to do a better British accent than the typical US actor -- after all, they say "zed" and spell color with a "u"!

Your first comment reminds me of a question I've been wanting to ask you.  There are three American television actors (all from the South) who I think do very fine British accents, and I'm wondering what you think of them, or at least those you're familiar with.

Daniel Davis (of Arkansas), known to me as Niles-the-Butler on The Nanny and the holodeck Moriarty on Star Trek: Next Generation.

John Hillerman (of Texas), apparently best known to everybody as Jonathan Quayle Higgins on Magnum PI.

Terrence Mann (of Kentucky), known to me as Hrothbert of Bainbridge AKA Bob (the ghost in the skull) in The Dresden Files.

 

[HerlockSholmes]

9 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

An exaggerated accent, or even an attempt at a full-strength accent runs the risk of sounding like a parody.  I haven't seen Frewer as Holmes, only as Max Headroom.  Isn't he Canadian?  Seems like he should be able to do a better British accent than the typical US actor -- after all, they say "zed" and spell color with a "u"!

Your first comment reminds me of a question I've been wanting to ask you.  There are three American television actors (all from the South) who I think do very fine British accents, and I'm wondering what you think of them, or at least those you're familiar with.

Daniel Davis (of Arkansas), known to me as Niles-the-Butler on The Nanny and the holodeck Moriarty on Star Trek: Next Generation.

John Hillerman (of Texas), apparently best known to everybody as Jonathan Quayle Higgins on Magnum PI.

Terrence Mann (of Kentucky), known to me as Hrothbert of Bainbridge AKA Bob (the ghost in the skull) in The Dresden Files.

 

Hi Carol,

I’m just heading out but when I get back I’ll check out the three names that you mention. To be honest I’ve only heard of one of the three (and I bet you can which one that is) and my memory is telling me that he did a pretty decent job. But memories can play tricks 

I couldn’t find a clip of Matt Frewer as Holmes but here’s a full movie. If you get 5 minutes to spare you can do a little fast forwarding if you don’t want to watch the whole movie. Kenneth Welsh was a very good Watson too.

[HerlockSholmes]

Ok, I’ve just checked out Daniel Davis as Niles on YouTube - a very good accent in my opinion. 👍

John Hillerman is also excellent.👍

‘I couldn’t find a speaking piece for Terrence Mann though.

[Carol the Dabbler]

1 hour ago, HerlockSholmes said:

Ok, I’ve just checked out Daniel Davis as Niles on YouTube - a very good accent in my opinion. 👍

John Hillerman is also excellent.👍

‘I couldn’t find a speaking piece for Terrence Mann though.

I couldn't either, other than some full episodes of Dresden Files.  You might want to check it out, if you're into detectives and vampires in the same show (which I'm generally not, but found this to be an exception).  The actor who plays Harry Dresden is British, by the way, and plays an American very convincingly. I've heard that it was entertaining to watch them "trade accents" whenever the director yelled Action! or Cut!

[HerlockSholmes]

It’s a bit strange but it’s probably likely that if I did a ‘posh’ English voice it wouldn’t be as convincing as either of those two (despite my natural advantage😃) Accents are difficult to eliminate to the untrained. My accent isn’t that strong compared to, say, my parents or my grandparents (except for one Gran who was Scottish and retained her accent despite living in the midlands for 60+ years) but its definitely still there. It’s unlikely to ever disappear now as I’m still in the Midlands surrounded by the same accent.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I'm sure you're right.  Even after living in other parts of the country (literally from coast to coast) for half my life, I never lost my Hoosier accent completely, and now that I'm back in Indiana, I think it's stronger than ever.

Which is fine with me.  Everybody's got some sort of accent, and I kinda like the one I grew up hearing.  I can imitate other accents well enough to be recognized -- but certainly not well enough to fool anyone into taking me for a native of wherever for very long.