Sherlock Holmes Box no. 2.

[ldhenson]

Box No. 1 was "about" Holmes and Watson, so I wanted this one to be "for" them, if you know what I mean.





I was quite taken by the notion of a small box that might sit on a mantelpiece or side-table somewhere, something to hold small miscellaneous items that would otherwise get lost in drawers or on desktops.

The box started off (store-bought) as plain raw wood + glass, which I stained, sealed, and hand-sanded up to 1000 grit, so it's pretty smooth to the touch. (Except the bits closest to the glass, which were hard to reach and only got 400 grit, but I doubt any of you cares about that.) The little plaque in front was added by me, to cover up the holes left after I took out the original metal latch.








I suppose you can guess which side of the box is whose...





I liked the idea that they'd had this box for some years already, so all the clippings here are taken from sources dated 1885 or earlier.





Watson's side includes:
Chapter on bulldogs, The illustrated book of the dog, c. 1881
Horse-racing schedule from Baily's magazine of sports & pastimes, Nov. 1883
Medical diagram from Lessons in elementary physiology, 1885
Two c. 1880s pen-nibs (present-day photo)

Holmes' side includes:
Map of London (the left panel is centered on Scotland Yard), 1885
Violin sheet music from Mozart's Don Giovanni, 1875 printing
Chemistry figure from A manual of chemistry, 1883
Interesting chip of stone, undated :-P

For that extra touch of geekery, all the texts are London-published with the exception of the Mozart, which was from the US.



The bottom is covered in felt to protect tabletops.



Oh, and the Baker Street sign...comes from the movie :-)