#Strand Magazine

[beekeeperspicnic]

In which I give an old book a new cover!

When I'm not binding books I'm making a Sherlock Holmes game due out in 2025 which you can wishlist on steam!)

[holmesoldfellow]

December 1987 edition of the Radio Times commemorating 100 years of Sherlock Holmes

[teaspoonnebula]

Naked Strand Magazine 🫣

[jabbage]

Ok hands, up who bought Bates' Sulpher Salt from the Strand Magazine in 1893 and is now immortal?

[principiumindividuationis777]

[thestrandmag]

"A word after a word after a word is power."

-Margaret Atwood

[bestnoncannonship]

I will show you soon.....right now I'm hoarding it just for me.....but.....my dear @kneelbeforeclefairy got me an original Strand Magazine for Christmas.......

And she just ordered another!!!

I'm so excited.

I own the commuter magazine from 1893!!!!! Wheeeeeeeeee!

[lizfielding99]

Blogging at Strand Magazine

Conference time It’s been a very busy week. Last weekend I was the Crime Writers’ Association conference in Brighton, which was a wonderfully friendly event with stimulating speakers. There were talks from experts in getting the details right in police procedurals and legal thrillers. A psychologist who’s worked with serial killers and authors who write true crime. We were also treated to an…

[lostinthevictorianera]

Sherlock and Watson having a fireside chat in A Scamdal In Bohemia.

Illustrated by Sidney Paget 1891. First published in the Strand Magazine Volume 2 July-December 1891 and the first edition of The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes (The Strand Library Volume 1) 1892.

"Then he stood before the fire." A Scandal in Bohemia. Published in The Strand Magazine. Sidney Paget, 1891

Sources 1 2

[thefugitivesaint]

Alfred Pearse (1855-1933), 'The Horror of Studley Grange', ''The Strand'', Vol. 7, 1894 Source

[beekeeperspicnic]

What I've been getting up to without my computer

Since I don't have any game updates at the moment I thought I'd give you a look at my very analogue Sherlock Holmes related project!

As you probably know, the Sherlock Holmes stories were mostly originally published in the Strand Magazine which came out as floppy monthly magazines with hardback collections every six months.

A while ago I spotted a really beaten up copy of the July to December 1893 book on eBay for £8. This book can sometimes go for £200 in good condition because it's the one with...

I immediately decided to make repairing it a Project!

You can see here that the text block has totally come away from the boards.

Along the spine I was really excited to see something a little familiar being used to give some structural support! My initial thought was that this had to be a slice of a cover of one of the floppy Strand magazines.

But when I got it loose and studied it, although the paper and ink colour is the same, it doesn't actually follow the layout format of the Strand covers. It's lots of little ads, and they run off the bottom like this is part of a larger document.

Scrap of paper on left, a Strand Magazine on the right:

So yeah, that's still a bit of a mystery, but it's cool to see this scrap of paper the printers had lying around. I had to remove it, but I'm going to keep it safe.

I did some gentle cleaning of the cover using a putty eraser, just gently pressing and rolling, never rubbing. It picked up a little of the grime.

The cover had got some paint splotches on at some point in the past, and I tried to gently remove these. Part of me wishes I'd left them as I think I was starting to effect the blue colour in the area.

(Original on the right, my attempt at cleaning on the left!)

I also reinforced some of the parts of the bookcloth around the spine that were very worn with Japanese tissue, which is very thin but very, very difficult to tear.

Now here's a fun part, with some help from my cat Miss Malkin!

The spine of the book had a few problems.

The fabric which wraps around it and helps attach it to the cover/boards which is called scrim (or mull, I've seen it called both!) had totally decayed and turned into gross dust, I knew I'd need to replace it.

Although the sewn binding was sound, I could tell that the glue wasn't doing its job anymore. It was old 'animal glue' that had turned hard and brittle. I knew I'd need to replace it with something else, like PVA.

I needed to get that glue off, so I tried out a trick I saw online. I made a paste/gel out of methycellulose, which is a substance that gets used as a thickener in lots of food products. Of course I keep mine in a fancy little jar:

The gel softens the old glue without getting it dangerously damp, allowing you to gently scrape it away. I have a really satisfying video of me doing it, but Tumblr only lets you upload one video per post, boo.

Look at all this gnarly gunk!

But look at how good the text block looks with its new scrim and glue!

I got the black paper from Shepherd's in London which is a specialist Art & Conservation Paper shop (they have a book bindery too but it's closed at the weekends.) Buying it was so fun, I got to look through lots of samples and pick something which matched the original paper.

I then had to get it home half way across the country on public transport. Yaaaaay.

I was trying to think what I was going to use to replace the Strand Magazine page on the spine. In the end I decided to leave a little note, for some future person who might take the binding apart someday!

So, here it is!

I have to admit that this whole project has been a real challenge, emotionally more than anything! It's required me to be brave about messing with an old book, and to acknowledge that even where I've made mistakes, at least it's better off then it was when It arrived at my house.

[holmesoldfellow]

Sherlock Holmes 2024 calendar by Strand Magazine

[teaspoonnebula]

I think I've posted these tender Strand Magazine ladies and their giant sleeves before, but I found them again so enjoy.

[jabbage]

Love this lead-eating tribble from the February 1904 edition of the Strand Magazine.

Insect or What? I send you the photograph of an extraordinarily curious insect. I am not prepared to say whether it is an insect or some kind of oranigsm. I can only say that it is alive and lives on red lead. The lady in whose possession it is has had it for upwards of eighteen yers, and who knows how many years of life in had before? IT is covered with light brown hair (which has to be cut occasionally), very like deer's hair, and is the size of a large marble. The 'curious insect' was given to the lady's husband by a rich native who gave up all his worldly possessions and became a fakir. When giving it to the gentleman (who had shown the man some kindness) he said that it would always bring him good luck. Mr T G A Baness, Hall Bazaar, Amritsur, Punjab

[lonestardust]

RONEN RUBINSTEIN and RAFAEL SILVA for Hello Magazine by © Margot Judge. May 2023.

[reasonandfaithinharmony]

Rafael Silva and Ronen Rubinstein: HELLO! Magazine cover shoot (May 2023)

Still images from behind-the-scenes video by Chaise Dennis (chaiseyboyy) on tiktok