So, Thaddeus Sholto is a sickly guy who has information for Holmes and Watson's client, Mary Morstan, about the disappearance of her father years ago when he returned to London from service in India. Sholto mentions he is destined with his health to be a valetudinarian which interestingly can mean either an invalid or a hypochondriac.
Evidently, there was a large collection of Far East valuables that Morstan and Sholto Senior were supposed to divvy up but Morstan died unexpectedly and Sholto concealed it. Too long to get into the story but he set aside a chaplet to give to Mary but he was a greedy prick so he didn't want it given to her until he died. Thaddeus sent her one pearl at a time. You can gather from the context it's some sort of necklace. More specifcally, these are prayer beads like, but not necessarily, a rosary.
Thaddeus says at one point "Le mauvais gout mene au creme" which means, "Bad taste leads to crime." It's a quote from Stendhal.
It's mentioned that Thaddeus has an astrakhan collar. Curious about what exactly that looks like?
Sholto mentions his collection of paintings by Corot, Salvator Rosa and Bouguereau. I was only vaguely familiar with Corot. Rosa (1615-1673) was an Italian Baroque painter and printmaker.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) was a French Classicist painter. He seems to have painted quite a variety of subjects: mythology, pietas, contemporary scenes. Apparently, he was mad popular during his lifestyle was but was derided by Degas and company for being too slick.
I really enjoy the Dutch Realism influence he shows. See here:
Tete L'Etude l'Oiseau
The Wave
There is a quote from Goethe between Holmes and Watson that I was going to include but in the end, I'm because evidently it was a misquote and it's long and full of crazy teutonic diacritics.
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