Sherlock Holmes manuscript expected to fetch up to £300,000

Handwritten draft of 1893 mystery to be sold at literature auction in US along with other works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Holmes.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Holmes. Photograph: London Stereoscopic Co/Getty Images

A handwritten draft of a Sherlock Holmes mystery from 1893 is to be sold at a fine literature auction in New York – with estimates suggesting it could go for up to £300,000.

The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter is one of the 56 short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about the detective Sherlock Holmes. The story is best known for the first appearance of Holmes’s older brother, Mycroft.

Several other Sherlock Holmes manuscripts will also be on sale at Bonhams auction house in New York on 11 April.

The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter manuscript
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The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter manuscript. Photograph: Bonhams/PA

The sale also includes a handwritten page from The Hound of the Baskervilles, the most famous of Conan Doyle’s stories, which marks the return of Holmes after his supposed death at Reichenbach Falls.

The page is estimated at £70,000 to £110,000 and is considered especially valuable as it features a discussion between Holmes and Dr Watson.

It is one of the few surviving pages from the original manuscript, as most were lost or stolen when they were distributed to bookshops as a publicity stunt.

The sale also features a handwritten copy of one of the last Sherlock Holmes mysteries, The Problem of Thor Bridge, which is expected to be sold for up to £250,000, and a manuscript of one of Conan Doyle’s romantic historical novels, Rodney Stone: a Reminiscence of the Ring.