AUCTION PREVIEW: 52 Christie Lots at Forum Auctions (5-June-2025).

On Thursday June 5th, 2025, Forum Auctions in the UK will hold a substantial sale of Modern Literature. Within the sale are 52 Agatha Christie lots, many with multiple items in the lot.  The current owner is unknown as the sale just states it is property of a gentleman.

Of note when looking at the estimated values, most are far below when the likely realized price will be. This is often done to encourage bidding. In addition, it is important to know that there is a 26% Buyer’s Premium added to the hammer price. All auctions have these premiums which do substantially raise the net cost for a buyer. In addition, if items are shipped, the service fees will also add to the total cost.  

The Lots:

Lot 48: The Road of Dreams, first edition, dust-jacket, Geoffrey Bles, [1925]. Estimate: £1,000 - £1,500. Of note, the endpapers have been renewed. The dust-jacket is priced at 5s.

Lot 49: Poirot Investigates, "Cheap edition", Bodley Head, 1925. Estimate: £400 - £600. Of note, the dust jacket reflects the price of 2/6 on the spine.

Lot 50: The Murder on the Links, "Cheap Edition", John Lane, 1925. Estimate: £150 - £200. Of note, the book has a Smith's Circulating Library bookplate and the dust-jacket has a 4/6 price sticker on the spine.

Lot 51: The Mystery of the Blue Train, first American edition, New York, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1928. Estimate: £600 - £800. Of note, jacket has some restoration but does show price of $2.00.

Lot 52: The Mystery of the Blue Train, first Bob Novels (1/- price) edition, Collins, [c.1929]; with a fifth impression of The Thirteen Problems (1934) in a dust-jacket (2). Estimate: £150 - £200.

Lot 53: The Seven Dials Mystery, third printing, Grosset & Dunlap, 1929; and 17 others, reprints and reissues of American editions by the same (18). Estimate: £200 - £300. Of note, a great set of Grosset reprints providing an affordable way to build a collection of them. The highlight of the group is The Seven Dials Mystery.

Lot 54: The Secret of Chimneys, first "Bodley Head Mysteries" edition, 1930; and c.65 others, Christie reprints and reissues (c.65). Estimate: £150 - £200.

Lot 55: Giant's Bread, "Mary Westmacott", first American edition, Garden City, Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1930. Estimate: £150 - £200. Of note, some tape repair and a price-clipped dust jacket.

Lot 56: The Murder at the Vicarage, first American edition, New York, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1930. Estimate: £400 - £600. Of note, this has an unpriced dust jacket. This particular title is one of the more common early Dodd Mead titles and jackets are known to be both priced and unpriced. I have no idea why.

Lot 57: The Murder at Hazelmoor, first edition, New York, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1931. Estimate: £300 - £400. Of note, some tape repair to jacket (priced).

Lot 58: The Floating Admiral, by Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Henry Wade, Anthony Berkeley, G.K. Chesterton and others. First edition, Hodder & Stoughton, [1931]. Estimate: £300 - £400.

Lot 59: The Tuesday Club Murders, second printing, New York, Grosset & Dunlap, 1933. Estimate: £150 - £200. The Dodd Mead first is exceptionally scarce, so this makes a great alternative, though the jacket by Grosset was not as bright or pink as the original.

Lot 60: The Hound of Death, first edition, Odhams Press, [1933]. Estimate: £200 - £300.

Lot 61: Unfinished Portrait, "Mary Westmacott", first American edition, New York, Doubleday Doran, 1934. Estimate: £400 - £600. One of the few books by Christie that used the same cover art for both the UK and US printings.

Lot 62: Murder in the Calais Coach, fourth printing, New York, Grosset & Dunlap, 1934. Estimate: £150 - £200. Of note, heavily sunned spine and price clipped jacket. While a later printing, an affordable version of a very collected title.

Lot 63: Death in the Air, first edition, New York, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1935. Estimate: £300 - £400. This is an exceptionally scarce title for US collectors to find. This is an attractive copy also.

Lot 64: A Century of Detective Stories, first edition, 1935; and 4 others, including Christie anthologies and omnibuses (5). Christie (Agatha) Dorothy L. Sayers, Anthony Berkeley, John Dickson Carr, Henry Wade and others. Estimate: £120 - £180. Of note, includes the Dodd Mead printing of The Mousetrap and other plays. All in all, some very collectible books here.

Lot 65: The Strand Magazine, Christie (Agatha) P.G. Wodehouse and others. 30 issues including much of 1938-40, 1935-41. Estimate: £150 - £200. A mostly complete collection of editions from these years. For collectors of Christie short stories or Strand magazines, Forum Auctions can provide a detailed list of the issues on request.

Lot 66: Murder in Mesopotamia, first edition, The Crime Club, 1936. Estimate: £1,500 - £2,000. Of note, it states restoration to upper and lower portions of the jacket. This may mask the reality that this was once a trimmed jacket that went on a reissue or WH Smiths private label edition.

Lot 67: Death on the Nile, first edition, The Crime Club, 1937. Estimate: £1,000 - £1,500. A price clipped jacket with a fair amount of restoration.

Lot 68: Death on the Nile, first American edition, New York, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1938. Estimate: £500 - £700. Of note, a sticker appears to have been removed from the front cover that resulted in a patch of jacket loss.

Lot 69: The Big Four, fourteenth impression, 1938; and c.40 others, Christie reprints in dust jackets (c.40). Estimate: £300 - £400. This is a great lot for anyone who wants a large collection of reading or shelf copies of Christies books. At the top end of the range, they average £10 per book.

Lot 70: Hercule Poirot's Christmas, first edition, The Crime Club, 1939. Estimate: £1,500 - £2,000. A price-clipped jacket with some restoration.

Lot 71: Murder is Easy, first edition, The Crime Club, 1939. Estimate: £1,000 - £1,500. A priced jacket with minor restoration.

Lot 72: Sad Cypress, first edition, The Crime Club, 1940. Estimate: £750 - £1,000. A price-clipped unrestored jacket with a chip on the front panel.

Lot 73: One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, first edition, The Crime Club, 1940. Estimate: £500 - £700. Of note, a priced jacket with minor professional restoration.

Lot 74: Evil Under the Sun, first edition, The Crime Club, 1941. Estimate: £750 - £1,000. Of note, a price-clipped jacket with minor professional restoration.

Lot 75: N or M?, first edition, The Crime Club, 1941. Estimate: £300 - £400. Of note, a complete but unpriced jacket with minor restoration. The unpriced jacket implies it is from an export edition which is otherwise identical to the first.

Lot 76: Ten Little N___ers, third impression, 1941. Estimate: £150 - £200. This is the ‘uniform edition’ with the generic jacket design that accompanied these editions.

Lot 77: The Body in the Library, first edition, The Crime Club, 1942. Estimate: £300 - £400. A priced jacket with minor professional restoration.

Lot 78: Five Little Pigs, first English edition, The Crime Club, 1942. Estimate: £400 - £600. A lovely priced unrestored jacket.

Lot 79: Murder in Retrospect, first edition, New York, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1942. Estimate: £200 - £300. Of significance is the ink stamp of Christie's American literary agent, Harold Ober, that is present in the book indicating that this may have been their file copy. This makes this book truly unique.

Lot 80: The Moving Finger, first English edition, The Crime Club, 1943. Estimate: £300 - £400. A priced jacket with minor professional repairs and a previous owners inscription.

Lot 81: Towards Zero, first English edition, The Crime Club, 1944. Estimate: £200 - £300. Lovely unrestored bright priced copy of a jacket that is often grubby.

Lot 82: Absent in the Spring, "Mary Westmacott", first edition, Collins, 1944. Estimate: £200 - £300. Another lovely bright unrestored priced copy.

Lot 83: Death Comes as the End, first American edition, New York, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1944; and 13 other first American editions by the same (14). Estimate: £200 - £300. As with Lot 69, another great starter collection – but here first American editions as opposed to reprints.

Lot 84: Death Comes as the End, first edition, The Crime Club, 1945. Estimate: £150 - £200. Be cautious here as it is a 2nd state dust jacket.

Lot 85: Sparkling Cyanide, first English edition, The Crime Club, 1945. Estimate: £300 - £400. A lovely bright dust jacket with minimal restoration, and correctly priced. These 1940s books with art work (versus just typefont) used to be easy to find in collectible condition, but the inventory has definitely dried up.

Lot 86: The Hollow, first edition, The Crime Club, 1946. Estimate: £150 - £200. A priced jacket, unrestored but mostly fine, with less spine fading than is usual for this title. A nice collectible.

Lot 87: The Labours of Hercules, first English edition, The Crime Club, 1947. Estimate: £150 - £200. Normal wear on this jacket as is common, but it is still priced and mostly complete. A solid collectible.

Lot 88: Taken at the Flood, first English edition, The Crime Club, 1948. Estimate: £150 - £200. An ink inscription, but otherwise a near fine collectible copy of this title.

Lot 89: The Witness for the Prosecution and other stories, first edition, New York, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1948. Estimate: £400 - £600. Of note, there is no British equivalent of this collection making this the true first edition of the title story. The jacket has had minor restoration, but overall this is a very collectible book.

Lot 90: Crooked House, first edition, The Crime Club, 1949 and 3 others by the same (4). Estimate: £150 - £200. Of note, Crooked House is in a 2nd state jacket, while They Came To Baghdad, Postern of Fate and By The Pricking of my Thumbs are all 1st state jackets.

Lot 91: A Murder is Announced, first edition, The Crime Club, 1950. Estimate: £150 - £200. A price-clipped jacket of a book that is getting hard to find in a collectible quality jacket.

Lot 92: Mrs. McGinty's Dead, first edition, The Crime Club, 1952; and 3 others, Poirot (4). Estimate: £200 - £300. Included are After the Funeral, Dead Man’s Folly and Hickory Dickory Dock.

Lot 93: They Do It With Mirrors, first edition, The Crime Club, 1952; and 2 others Miss Marple (3). Estimate: £150 - £200. Includes A Pocket Full of Rye and 4:50 From Paddington.

Lot 94: Destination Unknown, first edition, The Crime Club, 1954; and 4 others by the same (5). Estimate: £150 - £200. Includes Ordeal by Innocence, Passenger to Frankfurt, Endless Night and The Pale Horse.

Lot 95: The Burden, "Mary Westmacott", first edition, Heinemann, 1956; and 5 others by the same (6). Estimate: £200 - £300. Be certain to read the online description for this lot if interested in acquiring a number of Christie’s Mallowan or Westmacott titles.

Lot 96: Cat Among the Pigeons, first edition, The Crime Club, 1959; and 4 others, Poirot (5). Estimate: £150 - £200. Includes Hallowe’en Party, The Clocks, Third Girl and The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding. Sadly The Clocks is price-clipped as it is otherwise near fine. For some reason, this book’s jacket is often heavily chipped or damaged due to the paper used making a near fine complete copy a real challenge for collectors.

Lot 97: The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, first edition, The Crime Club, 1962; and 5 others, Miss Marple (6). Estimate: £150 - £200. Includes the last six Miss Marple books (incl. Miss Marple’s Final Cases) in British firsts.

Lot 98: The Sittaford Mystery, first edition, later issue, 1931. Estimate: £150 - £200. Of note, the listing states ‘later issue’ but it appears this is solely the export black cloth version, which is arguably a second state due to the cloth variant, but otherwise identical to the orange cloth first state.

Lot 99: Typescript with Autograph Manuscript insertions & signed by Agatha Christie, [c.1968]. Estimate: £300 - £400. This is a lovely piece of ephemera with Christie’s answers to various questions from a young student working on a school paper story. While I believe the signature is authentic, I think someone else wrote the answers in. While the answers are in a similar style to Christie’s penmanship there are too many variants and the ink colour is slightly different than the signature. That said, I believe Christie verbally provided the answers giving us a few insights. She states she most enjoyed writing The Moving Finger and Endless Night. She also states that her opinion on the current political situation is ‘As usual – a thorough mess!!!’

Summary.

This sale offers collectors many wonderful books to consider adding to their library. While the Lots lack the early and scarce titles, there are still some wonderful British and American titles from the 1930s and 1940s. In most cases I believe the estimates are far too low. For me, a few of the highlights are Lot 48 - Road of Dreams, Lot 63 - Death in the Air (US, Dodd Mead), Lot 66 – Murder in Mesopotamia (despite its restoration), Lot 67 – Death on the Nile, Lot 78 – Murder in Retrospect with the Harold Ober stamp, and Lot 99 – Typescript survey (for those who love unique ephemera). That said, there’s a lovely run of British firsts from the late 30s into the 1940s that are all getting harder to find these days.  Good luck should you choose to pursue any of the lots.

Full auction details can be found at: https://www.forumauctions.co.uk/

IMPORTANT NEWS re: Tickets to the 2025 International Agatha Christie Festival.

The 2025 International Agatha Christie Festival is a week long festival in Torquay, Devon that is well worth attending. I'm presenting on Thursday 18th September on the artwork of Tom Adams, creator of numerous iconic Agatha Christie book covers. The event begins with an illustrated talk I'm preparing. My talk is titled 'Tom Adams: The Art of the Artist' and in it I'll share exclusive insights into the creative genius of Tom Adams based on my research in his archives. Following my presentation, attendees are invited to the adjacent Torre Abbey Museum for a drinks reception that celebrates the launch of a new and related exhibit 'Tom Adams and Agatha Christie: Partners in Crime' where you will have exclusive access to view the exhibition before its opening to the public on Friday 19th September. There's only just over a dozen tickets left for this event and then it will be sold out, so if you plan on attending don't delay your ticket purchase much longer. More details and tickets can be found at: https://www.iacf-uk.org/festival-2025/literary/tom-adams-and-agatha-christie-partners-in-crime

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