What musical instrument did Sherlock Holmes play?

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional private detective created by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Known as a "consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for a proficiency with observation, forensic science, and logical reasoning that borders on the fantastic, which he employs when investigating cases for a wide variety of clients, including Scotland Yard.

Examples of Sherlock playing violin are in many of the stories and, of course, the television shows and movies. In "The Adventure of The Cardboard Box", Sherlock Holmes, over lunch with Watson, talks constantly about violins and offers up that he purchased his own Stradivarius from a broker in Tottenham Court Road for 55 shillings. In Holmes’ own estimation that Stradivarius he purchased was worth at least 500 Guineas; quite a steal! In The Adventure of The Mazarin Stone, Dr. Watson describes a visit to 221B Baker St. where he notices “‘the scientific charts upon the wall, the acid-charred bench of chemicals, the violin-case leaning in the corner, the coal scuttle which contained of old the pipes and tobacco".