Drummer Charlie Watts’ Sizable Rare Book Collection Heads to Auction

While Charlie Watts is best known for his 58-year career as a member of the Rolling Stones, the late drummer was also an avid collector of both 20th-century literature and jazz memorabilia. This fall, Christie’s will hold a two-part auction of Parker’s collection.

The Charlie Watts: Gentleman, Collector, Rolling Stone—Literature and Jazz sales will include more than 500 lots of first-edition books and rare pieces of jazz history with estimates ranging from £800 to £300,000 ($1,025 to $384,000). Standout pieces from the sale will be exhibited across Los Angeles and New York before being auctioned in London this September.

“Charlie was the heartbeat of the Rolling Stones for nearly sixty years, he was totally unique and devoted to jazz and literature from boyhood,” said Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood in a statement. “We miss him hugely.”

A signed copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby will lead the sale with an estimate of £200,000 to £300,000 ($256,000 to $384,000). An inscription to “the original Gatsby,” MGM screenwriter Harold Goldman, can be found inside its front cover.

The auction will also include rare first editions from authors like George Orwell, James Joyce and Arthur Conan Doyle. Meanwhile, Agatha Christie’s The Thirteen Problems is estimated to sell for between £40,000 and £60,000 ($51,000 to $76,000).

Despite playing for one of the most famous rock bands in history, Watts’s primary musical passion was jazz, and he long claimed that “Walking Shoes” by saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and drummer Chico Hamilton is what first inspired him to become a drummer at age 12. He even formed his own jazz group, the Charlie Watts Quintet, and performed at London’s Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. “His collection of jazz memorabilia which he started in his teens and built up during his years with the Stones is truly astonishing; it reflects his enduring love of the music and the musicians who made it,” said Dave Green, a jazz musician and Watts’s childhood friend, in a statement.

Memorabilia dedicated to Charlie Parker

In addition to his admiration for jazz icons like Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, Watts focused on collecting works connected to Charlie Parker, his favorite saxophonist. These include Parker’s membership cards, music contracts and a pair of 1952 Down Beat awards, which will be offered at auction with an estimate of £10,000 to £15,000 ($12,000 to $19,000). Other jazz lots include annotated scores from George Gershwin and Leon ‘Bix’ Beiderbecke, in addition to two scores by Irving Berlin inscribed to Ginger Rogers.

Watts, who died in 2021, grew up in north London and joined the Rolling Stones in 1963, playing on 26 of the band’s studio albums. He also created artwork for some of the band’s early releases, having trained in graphic design, and helped co-design their stage sets alongside Jagger. Watts was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the rest of the Rolling Stones in 1989. “People like Charlie Watts are very hard to put in a pocket, they don’t make pockets for people like Charlie,” said Richards in a statement. “A totally unique guy—the best drummer England has ever produced.”