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41 volumes. Includes: The Sign of Four. First Edition in Book Form, First Issue, with “138” misprinted as “13” on contents page, “w shed” on page 56. London: Spencer Blackett, 1890. * The Hound of the Baskervilles. 1st Ed. London: George Newnes, 1902. * The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. 1st Ed. London: George Newnes, 1894. * The Return of Sherlock Holmes. 1st Ed. London: George Newnes, 1905. * The Valley of Fear. 1st Ed. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1915. * A Study in Scarlet. Second English Edition. London: Ward, Lock, 1891. * The Mystery of Cloomber. 1st Ed. 1889. * Micah Clarke. 1st Ed. 1889. * Mysteries and Adventures. 1st Ed. [1889.] (Lacking half-title.) * The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales. 1st Ed. 1890. * The Firm of Girdlestone. 1st Ed. 1890. * The White Company. 3 vols. 1st Ed. 1891. * The Doings of Raffle Haw. 1st Ed. 1892. * The Great Shadow. 1st Ed. Bristol & London, 1892. * The Refugees. 3 vols. 1st Ed. 1893. * Round the Red Lamp. 1st Ed. 1894. * The Parasite. 1st Ed. Westminster, 1894. * The Stark Munro Letters. 1st Ed. 1895. * The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard. 1st Ed. 1896. * Rodney Stone. 1st Ed. 1896. * Uncle Bernac. 1st Ed. 1897. * The Tragedy of Korosko. 1st Ed. 1898. * Songs of Action. 1st Ed. 1898. * A Duet with an Occasional Chorus. 1st Ed. 1899. * The Green Flag and Other Stories of War and Sport. 1st Ed. 1900. * Adventures of Gerard. 1st Ed. [1903.] * Sir Nigel. 1st Ed. 1906. * Round the Fire Stories. 1st Ed. 1908. * Songs of the Road. 1st Ed. 1911. * The Last Galley. 1st Ed. 1911. * The Lost World. 1st Ed. [1912.] * The Poison Belt. 1st Ed. [1913.] * The Crime of the Congo. 1st Ed. [1909.] * Through the Magic Door. 1st Ed. [1907.] * The War in South Africa. 1st Ed. 1902. * The Great Shadow. Bristol & London, n.d. * The Great Boer War. 1902. Together, 41 volumes. Variously illustrated. Various sizes. Near contemporary half red morocco, spines gilt in compartments, top edges gilt. All First English Editions except 2 volumes.

Outstanding set of handsomely bound first editions by Arthur Conan Doyle. With five first English edition Sherlock Holmes books, including "Hound of the Baskervilles" and the very rare "Sign of Four" published before Doyle attained great popularity; plus the 1891 second English edition of "Study in Scarlet", the first Sherlock Holmes story. Also 29 further first editions, all but three of which are works of fiction. Arthur Conan Doyle ranks with Shakespeare and Agatha Christie as one of the most popular writers in English of all time. With the publications of the Sherlock Holmes stories in the early 1890's, Doyle attained an instant celebrity that has barely waned to this day. Doyle's first editions were read and re-read, few survived in any kind of collectible condition. This finely bound set of first editions is thanks to one prescient early reader and has remained in the original owner's family until quite recently. No comparable set has been offered at auction in the past 30 years.