Recently, it's all about the mysteries, isn't it?
Shakespeare has made his way into the modernized Sherlock Holmes show Elementary before (for which, q.v.), and that by way of a relatively-obscure quotation.
Here, Shakespeare appears by way of example in claim is about the relative values of signatures:
Links: The Episode at IMDB.
But I'm not sure that's accurate. The show says that there are fifty-one authenticated signatures of Button Gwinnett. There are six Shakespeare signatures extant (seven, if you count the one on the Folger Shakespeare Library's copy of William Lambarde’s Archaionomia). I've done some searching, and I can't find anything about any of those being sold as a signature of Shakespeare's (the sixth was discovered in 1909, and, had it been sold around that date, it would have likely sold for considerably less than it would today). Note: Please let me know in the comments if I'm overlooking something.
But there are records of Gwinnett's signature being sold at auction: One sold at Christie's in 2002 for $270,000 (with free shipping, I see); another sold for $722,500 at Sotheby’s in 2010 (this may be the signature Elementary is referencing, though they've rounded up considerably—or else the show's stated price includes shipping costs).
In a sense, then, Sherlock's claim is correct. Button Gwinnett's signatures have sold for more than any one of Shakespeare's.
But imagine that an eighth Shakespeare signature were discovered and authenticated. Even though I acknowledge that my bias leans more toward Shakespeare than toward obscure Revolutionary War figures, don't you imagine that one of eight highly-sought-after signatures would fetch more than one of fifty-one?
Sherlock knows a lot about what he knows about—types of tobacco ash, types of municipal gravel—but when it comes to knowledge about his own national poet, I think he misses the mark.
Links: The Episode at IMDB.
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