On 18 March 1959 Fleming had written to Richard Chopping about the cover he had undertaken for Goldfinger, saying that: “The new jacket is quite as big a success as the first one and I do think [Jonathan] Cape have made a splendid job of it”. Once again, Chopping was asked to provide the cover…
Article by Robert Rakison. With special thanks to Jon Gilbert and James Pickard. Collecting is a universal impulse and pastime, from football cards to Leonardo da Vinci. Book collectors do so for a variety of reasons – love of a particular author or character, period, literary quality, genre, illustrations, cover art, relationship to films, plays,…
If you are interested in investing in James Bond first editions and Fleming paraphnalia, you’ll need to have deeper pockets than Auric Goldfinger. Here are some of the most expensive items to have ever sold at auction. Special thanks to Simon Patterson at Hyraxia Books for his invaluable help. $102,000 Moonraker, signed from Fleming to…
It is often challenging to locate ‘very good’ or ‘near fine’ examples of James Bond / Ian Fleming novels due to condition qualities, that are specific to certain titles and make them increasingly scarce. To save you some time, I’ve collected up the 7 best companies for sourcing James Bond 1st Editions and other Ian…
The Diamond Smugglers is the true story of an operation responsible for smuggling millions of pounds worth of precious gems out of Africa. Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, drew on interviews with the reluctant hero of the diamond companies’ counter-attack to explore the world of the real master criminals of his time. The result…
First dispatched on September 26, this beautiful collector’s item deserves mention. Vintage Classics and Bentley Motors have united to create a luxury special edition of Casino Royale to mark 60 years of Bond. It also features an introduction from racing legend Sir Stirling Moss: “When it came to cars Fleming really knew his stuff… he must have known that the fabulous pre-war Bentleys…
This just in. Stride and Son Auction House in Chichester, West Sussex has several first edition Bond novels up for grabs and ‘The James Bond Dossier‘ They include: You Only Live Twice The Spy Who Loved Me The Man With The Golden Gun Octopussy & The Living Daylights Thunderball Kingsley Amis’, The James Bond Dossier
First edition copies of Ian Fleming’s 007 books are among the top lots in an auction being held in Benton. The titles, including For Your Eyes Only, From Russia With Love and Dr No, went under the hammer with Village Auctions on Saturday August 17 and were expected to fetch up to £1,000 in total. Auctioneer Malcolm Barry said: “I was…
Thrilling Cities is Bond creator Ian Fleming’s collection of travel writing from his 1959 round the world adventure for the Sunday Times. His assignment: “Make a trip of the most exciting cities of the world and describe them in beautiful, beautiful prose — within a month.” It’s his view of thirteen cities he visited in two trips…
Adam Blakeney, Senior Specialist in Modern Literature at Peter Harrington, describes why Fleming’s James Bond first editions books have all the qualities of a highly collectible series. http://www.peterharrington.co.uk/blog/2011/04/collecting-james-bond-first-editions/ Incidental Intelligence Established in 1969, Peter Harrington has become one of the leading rare books firms in the world. Adam Blakeney is the Senior Specialist of Modern Literature in the 20th-century…
Richard Chopping’s work on the On Her Majesty’s Secret Service dust jacket proved to be troublesome for the artist, because he felt that perspective was not his strong suit. The cover did not feature the usual juxtaposition of beauty, danger and death, which, especially considering the content of this particular novel, is unusual. Instead, this…
You Only Live Twice was published in the UK on 16 March 1964, by Jonathan Cape and cost sixteen shillings. There were 62,000 pre-orders for the book, a significant increase over the 42,000 advance orders for the hardback first edition of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Richard Chopping, cover artist for The Spy Who Loved Me, was engaged for the design. On 17…
The Spy Who Loved Me was published on 16 April 1962 in the UK as a hardcover edition by publishers Jonathan Cape; it was 221 pages long and cost 15 shillings. Artist Richard Chopping once again undertook the cover art, and raised his fee from the 200 guineas he had charged for Thunderball, to 250 guineas. The artwork included a commando knifewhich was borrowed from…
Chopping expanded his canvas, so to speak, for the final work he collaborated with Fleming on The Man with The Golden Gun. Because Scramanga’s golden pistol was too long to confine to a single panel, the artwork extended to the back of the jacket. Apparently book sellers were not enamored with the experiment because it…
Since Octopussy and The Living Daylights was published postumously, it allowed Chopping free reign, and so he filled the painting with his visual trademark, flies. The first edition, published by Jonathan Cape on June 23rd 1966, only contained the two titular short stories. Over the years, later editions have included two more short stories: The…
The jacket to Thunderball, in which Fleming specified a skeletal hand, was trouble-free in comparison with the legal hassles the contents of the book brought about. Writing to Chopping about ideas for the cover of Thunderball, Fleming said that the covers were “marvelous” and offered to increase Chopping’s fee, perhaps to 100 guineas. Chopping asked…
The striking image of a skull holding a rose in its teeth on the cover of Goldfinger was Chopping’s favourite. Ironically, it was also the first Bond book he read, and he was noted as saying he felt there was enough violence in the world already without characters such as Bond glamorising it. From Goldfinger on,…
Richard Chopping’s association with Bond author Ian Fleming began when he was exhibiting some Trompe L’Oeil works at a London gallery when his friend Francis Bacon showed Fleming’s wife around. The ensuing cover of From Russia with Love (1957) was similarly in Trompe L’Oeil style, the imagery of rose and dew drop being specified by…
Artistic Licence Renewed 