This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/15/2024
DOYLE, Arthur Conan (1859-1930). Autograph letter signed (“Arthur Conan Doyle”), to Kingsley, The Lodge, Crowborough, 12 October 1906.
3 pp. on bifolium, 8vo (7 ¼ x 4 ½”), old centerfold, signed on verso of integral leaf; folding chemise.
OUR SCULPTURE AFFAIRS. Conan Doyle corresponds to a “Kingsley” (probably not his son as he would have been 14 years old at the time) over business affairs regarding a sculpture-machine venture that along with his business partner, Nelson Foley, created in 1904 (a venture which ultimately failed in 1908). In his letter, Conan Doyle reassures his correspondent that he can “rely upon our work being very good”. He outlines the business as a “specialty now of small busts done from photos and perhaps a single sitting” and he thinks “that MPs and others who would like to give away souvenirs might find this useful”. In Conan Doyle’s selected letters, the author writes to Mary Doyle on 11 April 1908 regarding the failure of the sculpture machine: “the poor old Sculpture would not go. We fought it to the last. I have had such nice letters from all friends who put money in, appreciating my endeavours. Personally of course it is a blessed relief to have done with it. I was a fool ever to touch it. I have never had so much worry over anything in my life in the way of business. But it was not Nelsons fault” (Doyle: A Life in Letters, p. 550).