The autumn season can often produce a number of gems in the world of bookselling and vintage design. This year had a promising sale of rarely seen ‘golden age’ crime classics. Unsurprisingly Agatha Christie lead the way in the collection of musician Charlie Watts, at Christie’s. However Agatha wasn’t the only author of note. ‘Father Brown’ by Chesterton and ‘Sherlock Holmes’ by Doyle were prominent. It was especially good to see other long lost authors in similar design jackets to the highlight of the sale, ‘The Thirteen Problems’.

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At the time, in the 1920s and 30s, there was a phase of using matt green blotting paper type jacket material. I always enjoy handling this paper. Unusually there was a beautiful, although sadly faded, wraparound band that had survived alongside. There’s nothing quite like seeing and feeling the real thing. Although the estimate for ‘The Thirteen Problems’ (not one of Christie’s best short story collections), was sky high, (sold for £60,000), there was a far cheaper alternative in an identical jacket and paper design. ‘Death on my Left’ by McDonald was an appealing, almost twin design. The typeface was the same, in ‘basuto’. Perhaps McDonald will never acquire the kudos of Christie, but there is a pleasure in handling something much more comfortable under the Crime Club imprint. A much more reachable early reprint of the rarer Collins, ‘Hound of Death’ (see above photograph) was sold for £2142.

It is always interesting to see the repetitive designs of Collins being used on other authors. Berkeley’s ‘The Silk Stockings Murder’ (sold £6500) is similar in feel to ‘The Mystery of the Blue Train’. A potent reminder there are other authors besides Mrs Christie, who have very attractive books, even if lacking the content of longevity. A fine ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’ in a restored jacket still made £54,000. Remarkable. A fine unrestored ‘Lord Edgware Dies’ jacket made £23,000 and a fine ‘Death on the Nile’ jacket/book £31,000. There were also top rank American titles in the rare covers, such as ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘Tender is the Night’. On the British front, a signed ‘The Hound of Baskervilles’ by Conan Doyle, topped £214,000! I much preferred to leave those safely under glass!

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I find once a book reaches fairly crazy prices, it ceases to be a pleasure but a mere investment, a burden and a worry and often ends up housed in black boxes and/or vaults. They cease to be what they should be. Hence the appeal of the facsimile copy or better still the early re-print, so previously derided by dealers and collectors. Handling these books in auction house conditions makes photography less than ideal, with top lighting and guards all over the place, it is somewhat inhibiting! I must say the staff were helpful and let me handle and photograph anything I wanted. The last auction I attended was back in 2001 at Sothebys for the Dorothy Sayers collection. Handling a first edition of Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and a very fine ‘ABC Murders’ (sold for £8000) was a real wow for me. How time flies, never mind the market climbing up as never before.

Many of the cloth books had been married up with jackets from elsewhere, which should help to keep the market a little more steady. Many had come from the sun bleached collection of ‘Carlo’ (Charlotte Fisher), Agatha Christie’s faithful secretary. ‘Carlo’ had carefully removed every jacket and left the books to be ruined near a window. Sun light is the enemy of any book surviving in fine form and it doesn’t take long. Reds are particularly vulnerable. It is heartbreaking to see them so ruined, yet every one was inscribed to her by Agatha, a unique collection. Others had come from the Greenway sale from 2006. Nevertheless one has to work with what is in the here and now. Will the modern world of crime writing stack up to the inter-war beginnings? Will Richard Osman, or Anthony Horowitz be as desirable in 80 years time? How hard it is to tell! Popularity is so fickle with the internet tweaking such things this way and that. Television has been good to Christie, and I feel now it is down to the media age to communicate the worth of crime fiction. https://www.christies.com/en/auction/charlie-watts-literature-and-jazz-part-i–21924-cks/browse-lots

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