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…
The UK artwork for both the dustjacket and inside cover of William Boyd’s forthcoming James Bond novel, Solo, was revealed today on the website of Ian Fleming publications. The artwork has been designed by Suzanne Dean, Creative Director at Random House, who says she was ‘inspired by the 1960s setting of the book and wanted to…
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…
The cover of From Russia, with Love (1957) was similarly in trompe l’oeil style, the imagery of rose and dew drop being specified by Fleming, the Smith & Wesson revolver lent by the author. Fleming asked Geoffrey Boothroyd, a firearms expert, if he could lend his illustrator, Richard Chopping, one of his guns to be painted for the…
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…
These Pan Books dust jackets, all borrow elements from the Richard Chopping style of design. The flat design, assorted paraphernalia, danger, death, love, flies, flora and fauna. Pan Books produced some entertaining covers, which quite literally look thrown together, rather like a car boot sale. They do capture the spirit of Bond’s world though and…
Between 2004 and 2008, the scriptwriter and League of Gentlemen actor Mark Gatiss produced his Lucifer Box trilogy. Mark Thomas’s art for Black Butterfly adroitly Chopping’s style, right down to the “wood” backdrop common to all his Bond covers. The dustjacket explicitly references the late Richard Chopping’s his jacket for The Spy Who Loved Me (1962) courtesy of designer Ben Willsher. There’s also a…
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…
In 1979 Glidrose Publications (now Ian Fleming Publications) approached John Gardner and asked him to revive Ian Fleming’s James Bond series of novels. Between 1981 and 1996, Gardner wrote fourteen James Bond novels, and the novelizations of two Bond films. Gardner stated that he wanted “to bring Mr Bond into the 1980s”, although he retained the ages of the characters as they…
When the Fleming estate decided to resurrect Bond in 1981 with a new series of novels, Chopping was commissioned to paint the cover for British thriller writer John Gardner’s “Licence Renewed.” Chopping’s cover of a Browning 9 mm automatic, with pearls, flowers and—yes—a fly evokes several Fleming covers, most notably “From Russia, With Love.” Artists…
Carte Blanche is written by best selling thriller novelist Jeffery Deaver and takes place in the present day over a short period of time, and sees Bond visit three or four exotic locations around the globe, one of which is Dubai. Three variations of the UK “Carte Blanche” hardcover edition: Signed and numbered (1500) collectors edition…
Unused cover artwork for the James Bond continuation novel “Devil May Care”. Art by Mark Stutzman, 20×14 inch, gouache on illustration paper
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 