AMAZING Signed "Golden gun" up for auction

 You could understand both complete joy and happiness when finally a signed first edition of THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN from Jonathan Cape surface on the auction market. 

Not that I want one. I most certainly don't. But only for the chear joy that an auction house could make such a big mistake. 

Most James Bond fans knows a lot about Agent 007 but less amount of people know about Ian Fleming and his books. 

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN was Ian Fleming's last novel. Sadly he was not able to finish the novel. Some claim that Fleming wrote the first draft and that Kingsley Amis did the touch up of the novel before release. The reason Fleming did not do the touch up himself is sadly because he became ill and died before the novel was released. 

Maybe by know you understand what this blogpost is aiming for. It is impossible for Ian Fleming to have signed any copy of THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN because he had past away before the release. This books signature is fake and selling it should be counted as fraud. 

It is GWS Auctions Inc. in in USA who are the auction house. They estimate that the book will bring in $18-19 000. I myself is pretty sure it will be removed if people with knowledge claim that the signature is fake.   

The auction house also says that the James Bond movie with the same title was released in 1964. We all know it was released in 1974. The auction house don't even notice that in the same sentence they write that the book was released 1965. If so, the film could not be based on the novel. 

.... Well since english is my second language I just noticed that I have tripped and fell on my knowledge for the language. I did not notice the word "tipped-in". It means that a peace of paper has been glued to the book. And this is the same as for the Roger Moore autograph that the book contains. 

Two pieces of  paper has been inserted within the book with what is said to be authentic autographs of Ian Fleming and Roger Moore. I would still not bid and I would not call the book signed. 

Most Ian Fleming autographs seems to be fake. If this one is real or fake I leave to others to decide. I believe Fleming did most of his signings in books or on stationery. 

The hunt for someone claiming to have a signed copy of THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN goes on. 

If you wish to order the latest version of THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN you can do so here.

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.

       

Casino Royale book sold for a record breaking £30.000

British auction firm Sotheby's had a big and very rare auction today.

It was the auction of actress Vivian Leigh's belongings. Two of the lots were Ian Fleming books and one of these was a Casino Royale first edition in a condition that must be regarded like one of the three best Casino Royale still out there on our planet.

But let´s go back a bit.

If you do not know Vivian Leigh she played Scarlet O'Hara in the 1939 monster hit Gone With the Wind. A film ending up winning 10 Oscars. Gone with the wind was based on the novel with the same title written by Margaret Mitchell.

The Fleming connection is that Vivian Leigh was a friend of Noel Coward and so was Ian Fleming. Both Coward and Fleming had a house in Jamaica spending a lot of their time there during the colder months of the year.
Vivian Leigh did a film in 1956 based on a story written by Noel Coward. But if this is when they learned to know each other it would be three years after Fleming had published his first novel Casino Royale.

When I heard about this auction I immediately felt that "of course" Fleming based his character of Vesper Lynd on the looks of Vivian Leigh and the persona of Scarlet O'Hara. But if they got to know each other three years after the book was published then this is not possible.

But I am loosing track here.

As I said in the beginning, Sotheby's had an auction were most of Vivian's belongings were offered and amongst these the Casino Royale book was auctioned out for a stunning £30.000 including premiums. The book was in a fantastic condition consider its age but I have never seen a price tag like that before. It only shows that an Ian Fleming first edition Casino Royale with dust jacket will forever be out of my league.

What is your reaction to the new all time high? Please comment below. 

Casino Royale UK first edition

Vivian Leigh

Ewa Green as Vesper Lynd in the filmversion of Casino Royale.

O.H.M.S.S. cutting continuity script up for sale at auction

On June 27th, 2017 there will be an auction held in Calabasas, California in the US with lots of items connected to the movies for sale. Some of these items are connected to James Bond.

One of the items I was planing to bid on was a script of "On her majesty's secret service" signed by George Lazenby, Richard Maibaum and Peter Raven. The reason I am interested in the scripts are to see if any changes actually were made to the James Bond films that was originally in the script. For a few minutes I was ecstatic about what I was offered to bid on. But then I understood that this was not a usual script....

This was a cutting continuity script dated December 1969. In other words it was printed just days before the London premiere on December 18th 1969.
I have worked with films and distribution for many years now and since my home country (Sweden) subtitle all films from abroad we always get these dialogue scripts sent to us for the translator to use when setting the translation. In other words, what is on sale here is not a script written before the shooting of the film began. This "script" is only showing the cuts and the dialogue and not whether the scene is exterior or interior etc.

In other words this document contains all dialogue in the film and notifications on were sound effects has been added and were the cuts are. The dating in December also shows that this script will not contain any deleted scenes since the prints were ready to be made. To me and my interest this is a much weaker collectable to own then I first thought I had in front of me. Especially when the starting price is $1 000.

Below is the actual description of the item as written by the action house:

936. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service book bound cutting continuity script signed by George Lazenby and writers. (United Artists, 1969) Vintage original studio bound and bradded 170+ page Cutting Continuity script. Dated, “December, 1969” on the interior title page and signed in black ink below by, “George Lazenby, and writers, ‘Dick Maibaum” and “Peter Raven”. Bound in a hardcover board binding with gold gilt embossed title and “007”on the cover and spine. While pages are 3-hole punched in the left margin for bradding, the book is bound by the tops of the sheets. Some paper surface loss to interior front cover, not affecting content or integrity of the binding. In vintage very fine condition. $1,000 - $1,500

What is your take on the collectable for sale here? Is this something you feel the need to have in your collection? Please comment below. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

If you wish to place a bid on this auction you can be the first to do so here. It will be interesting to see what the sales price + 28% commission will be.

UPDATE: Item sold for $4.000 +28% commission. The total became $5.120 

James Bond books sold for an amazing $40,123

Recently there was a big book auction in the US that offered a section of valuable Ian Fleming books. Below you can see the prices the books went for. Below is pictures of the actual books being sold. Maybe you have anyone like these in your collection. The entire Fleming collection fetched $40,123. You may click on each book to see a bigger version.Please note that prices include the auction house fee but not tax.

The Man with the Golden Gun. London: Jonathan Cape, [1965]. First edition. Octavo. 221, [3, blank] pages. Publisher's full cloth, gold lettering on spine. In a pictorial dust jacket. Spine cocked, extremities worn, spine ends and corners of front board bumped. Some soiling on textblock edges, adhesive residue and abrasions on paste downs, ink mark on front free endpaper, occasional soiling in margins, upper corner creased on page 17/18. Jacket foxed, toned and soiled, minor chips on edges, cello-tape repairs on verso of spine panel. Very good. Sold for $163

 You Only Live Twice. [London]: Jonathan Cape, [1964]. First edition, uncorrected proof. Octavo. 256 pages. Publisher's perfect binding in original printed wrappers. Spine leaning, wrappers rubbed with occasional light soiling, faint tidemark along fore-edge of front wrapper, joints worn, corners bumped. Preliminary and terminal leaves glued to wrappers at gutter, minor faint staining to preliminary leaves, occasional over-opening. Good. Sold for $525

The Man with the Golden Gun. London: Jonathan Cape, [1965]. First edition, uncorrected proof. Octavo. 221, [3, blank] pages. Publisher's perfect binding in original printed wrappers. Front wrapper worn with a series of small bruises, faint diagonal crease across lower portion; joints worn, small chip to foot of spine; corners lightly creased. Hinges discretely reinforced. About very good. I bid $1,025. Sold for $1,062

Diamonds are Forever. London: Jonathan Cape, [1956]. First edition, first impression, with "His friends called him 'Boofy'" on page 134. Octavo. 257, [1, blank] pages. Publisher's black cloth, diamond device stamped in silver and diamond pattern ruled in blind on front board, spine lettered in silver, in original pictorial dust jacket designed by Pat Marriott. Small blemish to lower-right of front board, upper corners softly bumped. Endpapers lightly discoloured from binder's glue with some minor corresponding foxing, hard pencil erasure to upper-right of front free endpaper with small bruise, small stains to lower margin of page twenty-five, affecting adjacent leaves. Jacket edges lightly worn, particularly at spine ends, with small closed tear at bottom of front joint fold, extending to Cape urn device on spine; rear panel lightly rubbed with two small splashes in author bio; spine panel verso faintly darkened; price-clipped. Very good. Sold for $ 1,000

Diamonds are Forever. London: Jonathan Cape, [1956]. First edition, with "Boofy" on page 134. Octavo. 257, [1, blank] pages, with pages [9-10] not accounted for in pagination. Publisher's black cloth, front board pattered in blind with central diamond device stamped in silver, spine lettered in silver, in original dust jacket. Spine leaning gently, front board slightly splayed, lower edge of front board softly bumped. Page edges and endpapers lightly foxed. Dust jacket with closed tear at upper edge of rear panel near joint fold, recently addressed by small tape repair primarily on verso but folded over to small portion of spine and rear panels; spine panel faintly darkened with small bruise between "Diamonds" and "are," rear panel lightly rubbed with some faint soiling, edges and folds somewhat worn. Still, very good. Sold for $1,750

Octopussy and The Living Daylights. London: Jonathan Cape, [1966]. First edition, uncorrected proof, with sixteen words of notes regarding layout in pencil to preliminary pages and four on the front panel of the dust jacket. Octavo. 94, [95], [1, blank] pages. Publisher's perfect binding in printed cape wrappers, in original oversized proof-issue dust jacket with inset box stating "Proof Only..." on front flap. Spine very gently leaning with some minor creasing, rear wrapper slightly cockled at fore edge. Minor small stain to lower margin of page 11. Dust jacket top edge lightly worn with some minor creasing, as expected due to size. Near fine. Sold for $1,250

 

Group of Five Books. London: Jonathan Cape, [1957-1966]. First editions, including From Russian with Love, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy. Five octavo volumes Publisher's bindings and dust jackets. Some rubbing on bindings, spines leaning, ink ownership signatures. Dust jackets rubbed, edgeworn, and stained. For Your Eyes Only has staining on edges and front free endpaper, bookplate and small abrasions on front pastedown. Octopussy foxed on textblock edges, preliminary and terminal sheets, and dust jacket. From Russia, with Love has light foxing on top edge, and ink marks in margins and underlining text. Thunderball has staining on front free endpaper. Overall, very good. Sold for $625

On Her Majesty's Secret Service. London: Jonathan Cape, [1963]. First edition, uncorrected proof, one of 500 printed. Octavo. 288 pages. Publisher's perfect binding in original printed wrappers. Wrappers lightly rubbed, front wrapper lightly soiled, spine somewhat creased and leaning slightly, joints worn, corners softly bumped. Text block lightly foxed at fore-edge with small splash at top, occasional minor over-opening. Very good. According to Gilbert, "The proof of On Her Majesty's Secret Service has more errors and required more amendments than any other Fleming title, both in terms of careless composition and poor spelling..." Sold for $1,062 

The Spy Who Loved Me. London: Jonathan Cape, [1962]. First edition, uncorrected proof, one of only 500 copies. Octavo. 221, [3, blank] pages. Publisher's perfect binding in original printed wrappers. Wrappers lightly rubbed with some minor marginal soiling, particularly near the joint of the rear wrapper; spine rolled, cocked slightly and somewhat darkened. Top edge of text block with slight discolouration near crown, small bruise to half-title page near hinge where paper folded back and was glued to page, likely during the binding process. Very good. Sold for $687

 

On Her Majesty's Secret Service. London: Jonathan Cape, [1963]. First edition, limited issue, one of thirty-five unnumbered copies marked "Presentation," from a total limitation of 285, including 250 numbered copies, and signed by the author on the limitation page. Octavo. 288 pages, frontispiece after painting by Amherst Villiers tipped in. Publisher's quarter vellum over black cloth-cover boards with large ski-track motif on front cover, in publisher's plain protective clear plastic dust jacket. Spine somewhat darkened, joints softly creased with a touch of rubbing and a few spots of minor soiling. Mild over-opening to the first gathering. About near fine. Sold for $12,500

 

 

 Casino Royale. London: Jonathan Cape, [1953]. First edition, first impression, first issue of the first James Bond novel. Octavo. 218, [2, blank] pages. Publisher's black cloth, front board stamped in orangish-red with central heart device, spine lettered in orangish-red, in original first issue dust jacket lacking the over-printed Sunday Times review. Front board slightly soiled along lower edge, small damp stain to rear board at joint, spine gently leaning. Top edge of text block and free endpapers faintly foxed, page margins a bit browned, but pages still supple. A very good copy, housed in custom black clamshell case. Sold for $11,250 

Goldfinger. London: Jonathan Cape, [1959]. First edition, first issue, second state with blind-stamped detail lacking from upper-left portion of skull decoration. Octavo. 318 pages. Publisher's black cloth, spine lettered in gilt, front board stamped in blind with line-drawing of skull, gold pieces over eye sockets blacked in gilt, in original dust jacket. Front board lightly rubbed, spine slightly skewed, upper corners softly bumped. Occasional light foxing to page edges and endpapers. Dust jacket edges lightly worn, heaviest at spine ends and fold, spine panel somewhat darkened, light soiling on flap folds. Very good. Sold for $625

Thunderball. London: Jonathan Cape, [1961]. First edition, uncorrected proof, one of 500 copies. Octavo. [254], [2, blank] pages. Publisher's perfect binding in original printed wrappers. Front wrapper lightly soiled, spine leaning and a bit darkened, bottom of spine bumped, joints creased, series of small splashes to fore-edge of text block. Preliminary and terminal blanks discoloured at gutter from binder's glue, due to possible repair, occasional light over-opening, scant wear and small closed tears to page edges. Very good. I bid $1,750. Sold for $1,812

 

Live and Let Die. London: Jonathan Cape, [1954]. First edition, serif faint on the signature letter "I" on page 129. Octavo. 240 pages. Publisher's black cloth, Edward IV gold rose noble coin device stamped in gilt on front board, spine lettered in gilt, in original second issue dust jacket, (identified as third state by Biondi and Pickard). Front board bent near joint and slightly splayed, with three short ripples in cloth above coin device, spine gently cocked, gilt slightly tarnished, upper corners softly bumped. Occasional light foxing to edges of text block, blemish with small bruise at upper corner of front free endpaper from pencil erasure. Sold for $937

Moonraker. London: Jonathan Cape, [1955]. First edition, second state, with "shoot" corrected on page ten but other textual and printing errors present. Octavo. 255, [256] pages. Publisher's B binding of black cloth, measuring 194 mm tall, front board and spine lettered in silver, in original first-issue dust jacket. Binding lightly rubbed with few minor surface scuffs, rear board slightly warped, spine gently leaning. Page edges foxed with series of small splashes to fore-edge and small dampstain across the bottom edge. Front free endpaper and first two leaves as well as rear endpapers and two terminal leaves foxed; rear endpaper also soiled and stained. Sold for $3,250

Complete Set of Facsimile First Edition James Bond Books. Sheldon, CT: The First Edition Library, [circa early 1990s]. FEL editions, facsimiles of the Cape first editions of each of Fleming's Bond titles. Fourteen octavo volumes. Publisher's bindings, in original dust jackets and slipcases. Fine, in the original shrink wrap. Sold for $1,625

James Bond poster auction coming your way!

Even if it has nothing to do with the books of James Bond I am also a poster collector. Therefore I sometimes write a few words on any type of James Bond auction coming our way.

And now there is one. It is the auction house Ewbank's in Surrey, UK that will have an upcoming movie poster auction that will feature many Bond posters, some of them, a bit rare.

The highest estimated value is £1200 but I believe that the below Aston Martin Poster is worth more then that since it is quite rare. It will be interesting to see what is sells for.

You can check out the poster auction yourself at this link.

Ewbank's also have another auction a few days earlier where you can buy a shirt worn in Casino Royale (estimated at £120) among other things. Also listed are a few Fleming books at a fair price.  Here is that link.

Ian Flemings YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE script sold for £47.500

A few days back I wrote about a first edition of Casino Royale being sold at Sotheby's for £40 000. You can read that blog post here.

At that very same auction a oner of a kind James Bond collectable was also up for sale.

This very unique item was 255 pages of Ian Flemings typescript of of his thirteenth James Bond novel YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. 65 of these pages seems to have not made by Ian Fleming.

This is what the auction firm wrote about the lot up for sale:

WORKING TYPESCRIPT OF FLEMING'S TWELFTH BOND NOVEL, THE FINAL INSTALMENT OF THE 'BLOFELD TRILOGY'. It was also the first novel to be conceived and written after the beginning of the film franchise. Fleming had become fascinated with Japan on a 1959 visit. In 1962 he returned to the country, having decided that it would be the setting of his next Bond book (his research notes from the tip were sold at auction in 2002), and he began writing the novel shortly thereafter. By April 1963 the manuscript was completed and ready to be typed. His typist, Jean Frampton (who had typed all Fleming's manuscripts from For Your Eyes Only of 1959) produced eight copies for distribution to the editorial staff at Cape. The novel was printed in December 1963.

with extensive corrections and proof markings by a copy-editor in purple ball-point, the corrected text then checked by the author in blue ball-point WITH SUBSTANTIVE AUTOGRAPH REVISIONS TO APPROXIMATELY 65 PAGES, mostly single words or short phrases but including one eight-line textual addition (p.228), further textual revisions added in a second editorial hand (presumably representing additional authorial revisions made in another typescript) in red ball-point, and also with occasional editorial queries in green ink (pp.26, 192, 197), the first four pages (contents, dedication, divisional title, and first page of text) supplied in contemporary photocopy from another copy of the typescript, the remainder being carbon copy typescript, 255 pages, post quarto (260 x 206mm), March-May 1963, punch holes, held together by a prong fastener in a blue folder labelled "You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming", lacking title page, some abrasion at punch holes, light marks, tears to folder 

The typescript sold for no less then an amazing £47.500. No way near what I myself could ever spend on a James Bond Item. Lets just hope that the buyer was an institute that excepts visitors.

HA.com might have the highest postage rates possible

Sorry for this blog post but I am angry today. 

One of the worlds largest online auction houses HERITAGE AUCTIONS sometimes sells James Bond books. They are located in USA. And a few months back I won an auction for an Ian Fleming book. The book itself was expensive and cost me $1 250 (I will get back to the book I bought in a later blog post). But that was not my main problem. The problem was postage.
They said in an email that they would charge me with postage once they new the true cost for postage.

Last week I was contacted my mail saying that they were planing too withdraw $74 from my account. Now HA is in the US and I live in Sweden but $74 for the freight is outrageous. 

Since then HA have keep sending me catalogues with currier that I have not asked for. I have emailed them saying that I do not want any catalogues but they keep sending them anyway.

So I contacted them and the sales representative first said "but you paid $1250 for the book?". Well that should not have anything to do with postage and to that she agreed.

They then said that the postage was for 2 lbs but the book I ordered only weight 0,6lbs. Was packaging 1,4lbs?

A few months back I also ordered the Sylvester Stallone auction book. For that I paid $37 for the book and $25 for postage. That book weighs more then five times as much and has 506 full size pages.

It is wired that HA charges so much for postage. This will only mean that I will not be a returning customer. It is expensive as it is with +25% tax ontop of the sales price.

Have you ever been f**ked with postage? If so, comment below. 

New James Bond auction with 108 lots coming your way!

On Tuesday march 15 an new James Bond auction will be heading our way.
Once again it is Vectis Auctions Ltd in the UK that will have a specialist sale featuring 108 lots of James Bond merchandise.

As a James Bond book collector sadly there will not be anything for me to bid on but I believe my wallet (and wife) is happier about this more then I am.

The stuff fore sale this time around looks very familiar to the last James Bond auction that Vectis had. Can it be that collectibles did not sale the last time around or is it just allot of James Bond stuff out there that all looks the same.

You can see all of the 108 lots of James Bond memorabilia at this link.

Please use the comment section below to comment if your see something you would wish to own. Would love to hear about it.

Happy collecting!

Rare original James Bond painting sold today!

Sold today at auction is a rare piece of an Ian Fleming connected painting.

The below painting was drawn by Richard Harvey and is called Tatiana. She is off course the female lead from the novel (and film) called From Russia With Love. In the mirror above hear head James Bond can be spotted.

The drawing was made for the book and magazine company called Readers Digest.

The drawing is said to have been used during the 1980's but when I search the net for any picture of the book I fail to find it at all.

The painting is made with Chalk and airbrush and the size is 394x559 mm; 15 1/2x22 inches

Auction house Swann Auction Galleries estimated that it would sell for between $250-300 but the actual realized price became $594. I was not bidding on this item. did any of this blogs readers bid?

You can see the lot here.

Added to the collection: FIELD GUIDE OF BIRDS OF THE WEST INDIES

Ever since the first time I ever heard about how Ian Fleming choose the name for his secret agent James Bond, I have always wanted to have the FIELD GUIDE OF BIRDS OF THE WEST INDIES in my collection. I have been hunting this book for over 20 years, and now I have it.

Okey I have had a reprint of the book printed in 1971 in my collection for some time but it is now for sale. The reason that I was not satisfied with that version of the book is because when Ian Fleming built his Jamaica home after the second world war he had a copy of the FIELD GUIDE OF BIRDS OF THE WEST INDIES in his home written by James Bond. A book he often used while looking at birds.

The book was first released in 1936 with a stunning dust jacket and the second printing came out in 1947 and that is the one I have now and most surely the edition of the book that Fleming had as well.

On the below YouTube clip you can see Fleming explain how he came to use the name but on that footage there is a 1960's copy of the book. Since Casino Royale was released in 1953 Ian Fleming must have had the 1947 edition at his home.

 
So this is not the actual book Fleming had but a really rare piece of James Bond memorabilia to have in the collection and I am very happy to have gotten it from a auction house in the UK for £230.

Note that many people wrongly says that this book was called BIRDS OF WEST INDIES but the actual title was FIELD GUIDE OF BIRDS OF THE WEST INDIES.

In 1964, Fleming gave Bond a first edition copy of You Only Live Twice signed, "To the real James Bond, from the thief of his identity". In December 2008 the book was put up for auction, eventually fetching $84,000.

In the 2002 Bond film Die Another Day, the fictional Bond, played by Pierce Brosnan, can be seen examining Birds of the West Indies in an early scene that takes place in Havana, Cuba. The author's name (James Bond) on the front cover is obscured. In the same film, when Bond first meets Jinx (Halle Berry), he introduces himself as an ornithologist.

Anyone else out there who have this book in the collection?

The below picture is said to be a picture of Flemings copy of the book signed by no other then the real James Bond...

James Bond signed drawing by John McLusky up for auction

John McLusky painted his first James Bond strip in 1958 for the Daily Express in England. He continued doing so until 1966 making 13 of the James Bond novels into comic strips that are sold even today in book form.
In 1982 John McLysky came back to draw for new James Bond adventures.

It is said that the look of James Bond the way McLusky painted him later became the look Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were after which made them choose Sean Connery in the end to play James Bond.

Up for auction now is a photograph of John McLuskys most famous James Bond drawing (copy) with an original signature. The autograph is made out to Tom so here is an extra chance if you happen to be named Tom. Estimated selling price is between £50-£80. The only wired thing is that Chaucer auctions fail to mention the size of the picture. Quite crucial I would say.You can find the auction here!

I have a copy of this painting in my collection on my wall and it looks amazing. I also have copies for sale that measures 11x15 inches. My price is £20 or $30 and if you happen to be interested you can email me at stephan.backman(a)bredband.net. Frame is not included in the price.