Illustrators of "Black Peter"

[vadv55]

Who illustrated "Black Peter" besides Sidney Paget? Thank you in advance for your help.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Hello, vadv55, and welcome to Sherlock Forum!  

I read that story some time back, but had to look online for information about illustrators.  According to Wikipedia [here]:  ""The Adventure of Black Peter" was published in the US in Collier's on 27 February 1904, and in the UK in The Strand Magazine in March 1904.^[2] The story was published with six illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele in Collier's, and with seven illustrations by Sidney Paget in the Strand.^[1]"

That quote is from the "Publication History" section of the Wikipedia page, just past the "Plot" section.  They even include one of Steele's illustrations -- his style is quite noticeably different from Paget's, and I'd be interested in seeing more of them, especially his Holmes and Watson.

A lot of people are confused by the "Help and Assistance" section of the forum, so maybe the description needs some work.  It's actually meant for people who need help using the forum, so it's usually answered by staff members, although anyone can see and respond to queries there.  Your question is about one of Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes stories, however, so I've moved it to "The Casebooks," where you're more likely to get further comments from people who are more knowledgeable about the subject.

In any case, now that you're here, please feel free to have a look around and join in any discussions that interest you -- or start more of your own.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

On 2/23/2023 at 12:25 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

... Steele's illustrations -- his style is quite noticeably different from Paget's, and I'd be interested in seeing more of them, especially his Holmes and Watson.

Well, all I had to do was click on Steele's name in my previous quote.  His Wikipedia page [here] has two additional samples, one illustration of Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls, and one of Holmes and Watson with Inspector Hopkins.  I would swear that Jeremy Brett had posed for Holmes, and Watson bears a strong resemblance to just about any TV/movie Watson.  I would be tempted to suspect that Hollywood movie makers were more familiar with Steele's illustrations than with Paget's, and so did their casting accordingly -- BUT Steele himself said that he based his Holmes on William Gillette's stage performance, so basically he helped to perpetuate and expand people's perception of Holmes as looking like Gillette -- which would in turn have influenced the movie makers.

Does anyone know who played Gillette's Watson?  Of course there's a description of the good Doctor in one of ACD's later stories ("Charles Augustus Milverson," I think), but do Steele's illustrations of Watson predate that?  OK, I checked, and that Watson illustration is from 1904, the same year that "Milverton" was published.  So unless Steele had previously drawn Watson with a Doyle-ish appearance, that story may indeed have been his inspiration.

 

[vadv55]

Thank you for your detailed answer. The fact is that I recently saw two illustrations for this story (these are the second and ninth in the link https://ignisart.com/camdenhouse/canon/blac.htm, blac-11.gif and blac-13.gif), but their creator was not indicated anywhere. I'm guessing he's not one of the illustrators you mentioned, but maybe I'm wrong. However, I hope someone can clarify this for me.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Hmm, a mystery indeed!  Odd that they would post illustrations without crediting the illustrators.

As you may have observed already, the other (color) illustrations have Sidney Paget's "SP" signature.  The black-and-white sketches are also signed, but clearly by neither Paget nor Steele.  The first signature looks to me like "Gunschmidr" and the second is shorter, maybe "Gizch."  Assuming it's the same person, I'm apparently misreading each of them to some extent.

Aha!  A web search brings up Richard Gutschmidt, the first German illustrator of the Holmes canon.  This page [link] shows a great deal of his work, and if you click on their 1906 link (or scroll down to that year), you'll find both of your "Black Peter" illustrations.

 

[vadv55]

Thank you very much for your help in finding the right illustrator (https://ignisart.com/camdenhouse/gallery/3-retu1.htm). Indeed, for this it was necessary to show outstanding detective skills!

[Carol the Dabbler]

Thanks, vadv55!  It's just that once I get curious about something, I need to figure it out.

I'm still curious about Frederic Dorr Steele's illustrations, especially who his model for Watson might have been.  I did find a good collection of his Holmes illustrations here, dating from 1901 to 1915.

On 2/23/2023 at 12:58 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

... that Watson illustration is from 1904, the same year that "Milverton" was published.  So unless Steele had previously drawn Watson with a Doyle-ish appearance, that story may indeed have been his inspiration.

Nope, the page I linked to at the top of this post has a couple of his earlier Watson illustrations published in the fall of 1903.  So I suspect that he may have based the doctor on how he was portrayed in Gillette's stage play.