Ian Fleming: Bust sold for £1250

In October 2019 a bust of Ian Fleming was offered at auction by Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers. The bust sold for £1000 plus 25% commission coming to an end price of £1250. 

The bust was first used on the cover artwork for John Pearson's Fleming biography “The Life of Ian Fleming” (Jonathan Cape, 1966). It was then reproduced in small numbers for distribution to the larger book shops across Great Britain, to be used as window decoration when promoting both the biography and Fleming's own James Bond novels. The size of the bust is 52 cm. Not only was the bust seen on the first edition of the biography but also on the book club version (The companion book club 1966). 

 

Very few of these beautiful plaster busts have survived, and those that have usually need some sort of restoration of the gold paint and possible plaster repair too. 

 

When I first saw the bust on the cover of “The Life of Ian Fleming” I felt I would do anything to own it. As I have shown in another blog post (click the link) I am now indeed fortunate to own two of them.

 

It’s nice to discover they have increased in value over the years: they are so worth it. If you are able to buy one you definitely should. 

 

PLEASE NOTE: English is my second language so please excuse any small errors in translation.

When the auction house Christies was selling one back in 2007 they described the lot as written below.

FLEMING, Ian (1908-1964)--After Simone PANCHAUD DE BOTTOMES. 'Ian Fleming'. A cast metal bust finished in gold-painted plaster with initials 'SPB', executed c.1966 after Panchaud de Bottomes' original conceived in c.1931, 520mm high (some minor surface chipping and old repairs). Provenance: The Times Bookshop (purchased upon its closure). A RARE BUST OF FLEMING AFTER THE ORIGINAL BY THE MOTHER OF HIS FIANCéE MONIQUE PANCHAUD DE BOTTOMES, probably produced to publicise John Pearson's biography of Fleming. Fleming met Monique Panchaud de Bottomes at a ball in Geneva in autumn 1930, while he was a student at Geneva University. She was 'a slim, dark-haired local beauty' (A. Lycett Ian Fleming, London: 1995, p.45), from Vich in the Canton of Vaud, some 15 miles from Geneva, and 'she was impressed by [Fleming's] intelligence, charm and sensitivity ... He found her chic, cultured and amusing, the very essence of a modern French-speaking girl. Before long they were inseparable' (loc. cit.). By the summer of 1931 they considered themselves unofficially engaged, and Fleming would spend most weekends at the Panchaud de Bottomes' chateau, where the original of this bust by Monique's mother, Simone Panchaud de Bottomes, was sculpted in the early 1930s. However, Fleming's mother was strongly opposed to the engagement, and brought all possible pressure to bear on him -- emotional, professional, and financial -- and eventually the engagement was broken off by Fleming in 1933. Fleming felt bitter and guilty about the ending of the relationship: 'after this he would never dream of marrying anyone. "I'm going to be quite bloody-minded about women from now on ... I'm just going to take what I want without any scruples at all"' (J. Pearson The Life of Ian Fleming, London: 1966, p. 57), and was thought by his friends to continue to pine for Monique. Certainly, her name and background were used by Fleming some thirty years later in the 'James Bond' novel You Only Live Twice (London: 1964), in which Bond's mother is described as Monique Delacroix, from the Canton of Vaud. This bust is one of a small group that was probably produced to publicise Pearson's biography of Fleming, which uses a photograph of one on the dustwrapper; only a small number are thought to have been made, and few survive.

       

Ian Fleming almost made it onto Netflix

Even though I am not British. I, like many others across the globe enjoy watching the Netflix series THE CROWN said to be based on the life of mainly Queen Elizabeth II and the famous characters around her. 

When I started watching the series I was hoping for some sort of cameo by Ian Fleming or at least a mentioning of his name. I am half way into the second season and so far his name has not been mentioned and I have to be satisfied with watching an British era wile Fleming steadily wrote a book a year. 

But...

Actually season two and episode one and two have a quite strong connection to Ian Fleming. 

After Winston Churchill ended his role as Prime Minister in 1955 Anthony Eden took over the role for two years until 10 January 1957. 

During his time as Prime Minister his health declined and his doctors told him to go far away to where there was sun and relaxation. They suggested Jamaica.

This is all mentioned in episode one and two but what they fail to mention is of course that it was actually to Ian Fleming's house Goldeneye in Jamaica that Anthony Eden went and spent a month in the fall of 1957. The choice of Goldeneye seems to have been Mrs Eden who was a long time friend of Mrs Anne Fleming, Wife of Ian. 

To read more about the Ian Fleming connection with Anthony Eden I suggest the book The life of Ian Fleming by John Pearson. It has a hole chapter on the matter. 

Sir Anthony Eden

Jeremy Northam as Sir Anthony Eden.  

  

  

I almost had a THE SPY WHO LOVED ME first edition

I had four copies of the Jonathan Cape edition of the Ian Fleming novel THE SPY WHO LOVED ME but no actual first edition.

I also had Jon Gilbert fantastic book Ian Fleming: The Bibliography. A book in which you can read about all the Fleming releases in both Great Britain and America.

There I could find an exact documentation of the dust jacket for a true first edition and I was wondering if my fifth impression from 1963 that I bought for £12.50 a long time ago might have a dust jacket that looked exactly as the true first edition dust jacket.

This is what a true first edition dust jacket should have according to The Bibliography:

1. The rear panel prints opinions of Thunderball entitled "Verdicts of THE TIMES!, being seven reviews from newspapers whit the word "Times" in their title. CHECK!

2. Front flap text (aligned left) VIVIENNE MICHEL writes:...nineteen lines. After that it should say Jacket design by Richard Chooping, Dagger by Wilkinson Swords Ltd, (c) Ian Fleming 1962. It should also be priced at lower corner. CHECK!
3. The rear flap is entirely blank. CHECK!

4. All four corners are clipped by Jonathan Cape. CHECK!

Everything looked great so I decided to buy a Cape first edition of THE SPY WHO LOVED ME and I got it out of Ebay for £52. A few days later I received it.
But then it hit me what I have read in The life of Ian Fleming by John Pearson. Fleming often complained that he did so little profit on his books. He always felt they were to cheap for the reader so the price often increased during this time.

Sadly I could not be more correct. After some investigation on the matter I found that a true first edition of THE SPY WHO LOVED ME cost 15s and a fifth edition one year later cost 16s. And I have a dust jacket that reads 16s. So I guess the hunt goes on for an affordable true first edition of THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. So close but no cigar.

If you are also hunting for a First edition print of THE SPY WHO LOVED ME dont be cheated by a seller that says that their book is price clipped. Make sure that it says 15s. It would be so easy for me to price clip my book and make it look like a first edition.

PS. Today I have updated my sales page with an 1968 Airfix construction kit. It is being offered here!

Today is the TRUE birthday of James Bond

Today is the true birthday of James Bond. and below you can find out why. I hope you all celebrate this is style. Me myself is celebrating this be rereading Casino Royale for the third time.

The following text is from page 189 in John Pearsons THE LIFE OF IAN FLEMING.

"James Bond was born at Goldeneye on the morning of the third Tuesday of January 1952, when Ian Fleming had just finished breakfast and had ten more weeks of his forty-three years as a bachelor still to run. He had already had his swim out to the reef, and he was wearing white shorts, a coloured beach shirt from Antonio's in Falmouth, and black hide sandals. He came up the steps from the garden while (his housekeeper) Violet was clearing away the remains of breakfast, shut the door of the big living room , closed the jalousies, and settled himself down at the brown roll-top desk with his oxidized gold cigarette case , his twenty-year-old Imperial portable, and a ream of best quality folio typing paper he had bought at a shop on Madison Avenue ten days earlier". 

He had already decided that his main character should be named James Bond. (and you can read the reason here). Apart from the name he had no notes and had made no preparations for his story.

"He simply began to type in his cool, big, shaded room, and for the next seven weeks he kept at it steadily. Every morning between nine and twelve, the sound of the machine echoed through the still house. There were no distractions.
Around midday the noise of typing would cease and Fleming would come out of the house and sit yawning and blinking in the strong sunlight by the cliff. After he had eaten he slept for an hour or. At five he returned to his desk to read through what he had written before putting the pages into the blue manilla folder in the bottom hand left drawer of the desk"


And later the following year Casino Royale was released by Jonathan Cape. And the novel started with the now famous line:

The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning.

Just so you know, The name of this blog THE SECRET AGENT is off course the name of the first chapter of the below book.

My 30 different editions of CASINO ROYALE

I have quite a few James Bond book...

A few days back I gave the Facebook readers of The Ian Fleming Foundation the chance to decide what I was supposed to read after I had finished  reading THE LIFE OF IAN FLEMING. A book I have written a blog post about here.

I must be honest and say that I longed to read a book about the making about the James Bond films but you wanted something else. I had decided to read the James Bond novels by Fleming all over again. I must confess and say that must of them have I only read once and that was more then 20 years ago. At that time I also read them in Swedish loosing some of the prose of Fleming that I was not mature for.

So when the voting was done by the readers CASINO ROYALE stood as a clear winner and I started reading the book yesterday.

I have many different editions of Casino Royale including all Swedish editions. As you can see on the above photo I have four different copies of the Jonathan Cape "queen of spades edition" and the earliest of them is from 1957 and that is an new edition to my collection. The three others will soon be fore sale here on the blog or on Ebay (I will get back to that later)

Below you can see some of my Casino Royale book collection. All pictures are from the books of my own collection.

Witch is your favourite?
 

 

With more to come if the cover speaks to me!

Rare suggested title for Casino Royale found

Back in the fifties Ian Fleming had a hard time selling the rights for his novels abroad. Apparently USA and Sweden were the only countries who decided to release Casino Royale at an early stage. And this was after Fleming had worked hard to get a publisher in America.

In early June 1954 Ian Fleming sent the manuscript for Moonraker to his publisher. He also sent a letter to his US publisher saying that he was not sure about his latest story of James Bond but that it should make a good film.

Ian Fleming was dreaming of making a fortune of the James Bond books but at this stage he hardly made any money of them at all. Casino Royale had been released a year earlier and so far the book had been reprinted twice and sold over 8 000 copies and that had given Fleming a salary of £325 8s. 5d.

In the US the book had sold even worse with less then 4 000 copies sold of Casino Royale so far.

Now everybody know that its hard for a new writer to hit the market. But for the amount of work Fleming had but into these books his earnings was poor.

But then he was asked by the American Popular Library to have Casino Royale released as a paperback under the name  YOU ASKED FOR IT and for this Ian Fleming would be paid $2,625.

Fleming was told that the Americans would not know hot to pronounce "Royale" and that if he was not satisfied with You asked for it he was free to come up with a new title.
Fleming did so but he was not happy about it. "How about THE DOUBLE-O AGENT or THE DEADLY GAMBLE? he asked but added "But please don't worry about it either way".

And in the end the US publishers decided to go ahead with the You asked for it title and at the same time making the paperback a must have in any Ian Fleming collection.

Bellow you can see my copy of the book.

(This story can be found in the book The Life of Ian Fleming by John Pearson on page 249)

If you have not already bought Casino Royale by Ian Fleming this is the time to do so. Please use the link below if you like this blog.

What a great book I am currently reading!

I am not a quick reader. As you might have noticed on my spelling I have a mild version of dyslexia. Therefore I am extra happy when I have finished a book and can start on a new one. Most people seems to enjoy the ending of a book but for some reason I enjoy the beginning of books the most.

Anyhow, I finished reading Trigger Mortis a few days back and decided to jump right into THE LIFE OF IAN FLEMING by John Pearson. Pearson was Ian Flemings personal assistant when Fleming worked at the British newspaper The Times.

The book was published in the UK in 1966 by Jonathan Cape and was also released as a book club edition that same year. In the US it was released as a paperback with the different title ALIAS JAMES BOND - THE LIFE OF IAN FLEMING. Trying off course to take advantage of the James Bond heydays taking place at that time.
I will not reread this book but apparently the book had to be changed after the Jonathan Cape first edition was released since Thunderball Producer Kevin McClory alleged that parts of the biography were untrue regarding the novel and film rights to Thunderball.

I do enjoy this book a lot. I thought that since it came out in 1966 I would have a hard time with the English language but it works fine to read even for a foreigner.

This is a typical book that I would only collect a first edition, read it, and then dont collect further editions. But I really like the US cover design and the UK book club editions. If you wish to buy one of these versions they are all available on EBay and do not cost much compared to others. Click HERE for a EBay link. Just make sure to get your hands on a first edition of the book.

THE LIFE OF IAN FLEMING was such a great book that John Pearson was offered to write a James Bond novel in 1972. In 1973 the fictional biography:  James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007 was released. I read that book earlier this year and I absolutely loved it. If you have not read it, you should. Its great but a hole new blog post in itself.