BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Sherlock's deerstalker hat

**Posted by Davina** August 1, 2012 12:32 pm

An article about where Sherlock Holmes' popular image came from. Again link won't work directly but you can search for Sherlock Holmes and you will easily find the article.

www.smithsonianmag.com/design/2012/07/where-sherlock-holmes-popular-image-came-from/

**Posted by kazza474** August 1, 2012 12:53 pm

Try this one

**Posted by Sherli Bakerst** August 1, 2012 2:16 pm

Very interesting article. It would be great if that could be a traveling exhibition.

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** August 1, 2012 8:48 pm

Nice article. Thank you!

**Posted by veecee** August 2, 2012 3:18 am

I saw a cringe-worthy interview of Ben on a talk show (I'm sure you can find it on YouTube). The two hosts, a man and a woman, gave him a pipe and a death frisbee from the Sherlock Homes museum or someplace. Ben was very gracious about declining to put on the hat (no John to tell him to do it), saying that it was a small and wouldn't fit.

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** August 4, 2012 6:59 pm

Yeah, they really are rather uncool items of headwear.

**Posted by Lupin** August 20, 2012 6:41 am

I don't think Holmes ever wore a deerstalker or an inverness cape in the canon or used a twisted pipe. I believe the latter was invented during the Basil Rathbone films. The elaborate pipe was to hide his large nose.

The hatred of Sherlock in the series for the hat may be a bit of a jab at the popular misconception of Holmes.

Last edited by Lupin (August 20, 2012 10:05 pm)

**Posted by The Doctor** August 20, 2012 7:30 am

Lupin wrote:
The hatred of Sherlock in the series for the hat may be a bit of a jab at the popular misconception of Holmes.

Indeed, that is how I understood it!

"Sherlock’s unmistakeable deerstalker hat, for example, was never mentioned in the printed words of the Holmes books. When Sidney Paget illustrated Doyle’s story, The Boscombe Valley Mystery, for publication in The Strand Magazine in 1891, he gave Sherlock a deerstalker hat and an Inverness cape, and the look was forevermore a must for distinguished detectives—so much so that while the deerstalker was originally meant to be worn by hunters (hence the name), the hat now connotes detective work, even without a detective’s head inside it."

**Posted by SusiGo** August 20, 2012 7:33 am

And he's absolutely right in hating it. I think the hat's to quote Benedict f****** atrocious .

**Posted by LoveBug54** August 31, 2012 3:07 am

Lupin wrote:
I don't think Holmes ever wore a deerstalker or an inverness cape in the canon or used a twisted pipe. I believe the latter was invented during the Basil Rathbone films. The elaborate pipe was to hide his large nose.

The hatred of Sherlock in the series for the hat may be a bit of a jab at the popular misconception of Holmes.

The use of the meershaum pipe is attributed to William Gillette, who was the first significant actor to portray Sherlock Holmes in the play "Sherlock Holmes" back in 1899. He allegedly said he used that type of pipe because it would allow him to smoke in character but not hide his mouth. He co-wrote the play with Conan Doyle and is the one who came up with the line, "It's elementary, my dear Watson." He also wore the deerstalker and the inverness cape.

**Posted by SusiGo** September 6, 2012 4:41 pm

I just stumbled upon this quote from "The Silver Blaze" which somehow rings a bell :

"... while Sherlock Holmes, with his sharp, eager face framed in his ear-flapped travelling cap …"