Yesterday, rival auction houses saw Bond film props go up against a signed Ian Fleming first edition. I know which item I'd rather have. But which one 'won', and what does it mean?
Above: Taking to the stage at yesterday's Propstore event, auctioneer Thomas Forrester
If you’ve never logged-on and watched a proper auction-house auction, you must – particularly if it’s a Propstore one.
The world’s leading auctioneer of film & TV props and associated material holds regular, high-profile events that regularly smash auctions records. With iconic items from classic movies, the results they get confirm the fact that while (technically) times are supposed to be tough, for those that want their one-off items, there is seemingly no lengths bidders will go to.
This summer, Indiana Jones’s famous fedora hat – worn in the 1984 film, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom - sold for a whip-cracking $630,000; meanwhile a wand from one of the Harry Potter films sold for more than $53,000.
But both of these were nothing compared to the $525k (£416,813) hammer price recently reached for Indy’s actual whip when it sold in the spring, or the $843,750 (£660,000) realised at the March Propstore auction featuring Anthoy Daniel’s own personal C3PO head (as used in Return of the Jedi) - see below:
While these movie-prop auctions are usually a cheap form of entertainment for the mere mortals amongst us interested in popular culture (these sales are often high-energy affairs, with most sales typically accompanied by loud whooping and applause when the hammer goes down), the one thing they all usually feature is some James Bond material.
And that means Bond fans get another chance to debate amongst themselves the extreme fandom that seems to exist for the Bond movies, versus the significantly lower level of hysteria that surrounds the original books.
I thought I might try and demonstrate this, by sharing with you two very different auctions showcasing ‘Fleming’ - both held yesterday, 14th November.
The big one was Propstore (London's) main event of the year – it's annual November film sale. It's a massive affair with items under the hammer ranging from Batman costumes, prop guns and spaceships and models from Alien and the Back to the Future films, to TV props and costumes.
And then, on the other side of the globe, was Freeman’s Hindman auctioneers, with an Ian Fleming signed copy of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (not the limited edition one, but a signed one nevertheless – or at least one where I thought the signature looked good).
At the Propstore event, Bond movie items included:
· Some prop gold bars used in Goldfinger
· A heat-seeking missile prop for 'Little Nellie', used in You Only Live Twice
· A boiler suit worn by one of Stromberg’s henchmen in The Spy Who Loved Me
· A blaster, cap, and spacesuit gloves worn by one of Drax’s acolytes from Moonraker.
In addition to the above, the absolute star lot (well, predicted to be), was the original hand-painted art by Robert McGinnis used for the promotional poster of Guy Hamilton's Bond film, Diamonds are Forever.
Right now – as I write this at nearly 5pm on Thursday afternoon, anticipating all of these items from both auction houses going under the hammer - I’m going to make a prediction:
Judging by previous prices for movie-related material, the signed book will probably be the ‘lowest’ value item out of all the ones I’ve so far described.
30 minutes later…
First up, it’s the singed On Her Majesty’s Secret Service:
Well, one thing's for sure, I can’t be the only one who thinks the signature is legit.
After starting slowly at a starting price of $1,500, the bids rapidly creep up.
There’s a few occasions where a 'final call' is announced, only for a last, split-second bid to come in and keep the auction going.
A few more of these, and the auctioneer's hammer rises, and hangs - poised to strike down. Any further bids? No.
A final hammer price of $6,500 is achieved. Not bad at all.
Add on the 31% auction fee, and you’re looking at a final cost price of $8.515 – or slightly over £6.700. The eventual buyer may also have paid for shipping.
So… what can the movie items do next…?
It’s now approaching 7.20 pm and the Bond lots are coming up:
Fort Knox gold bars: Some spirited bidding saw these prop gold bars reach almost the money the real ones probably cost in 1964.
Hammer price: £3,000
'Little Nellie' Heat-seeking missile: A surprise hit from the start, bidding was frenzied, and rocketed up.
Hammer price: £10,000
Stromberg henchman's boiler suit: Probably bought by the props department for a few pounds from the local Army & Navy, this not exactly iconic costume was probably always going to struggle. It needed £4,000 to sell. It reached...
Hammer price: £3,750 (lot was passed)
Drax henchman space cap, gloves and blaster: Compared to the underwhelming Stromberg henchman suit, these far more memorable items hit the outer atmosphere, with strong bidding resulting in a sale
Hammer Price: £4,000
Original Diamonds Are Forever artwork
This hand-painted canvass by renowned artist Robert McGinnis for the promotion of Guy Hamilton's Bond film Diamonds are Forever, was the star lot. Pre-auction, its estimate was an eye-watering £150,000-£300,000.
Bidding opened at a very healthy £100,000 and soon came £110,000. Wuickly after that came £120,000. But, just as fast as these initial bids came was a big slowdown.
Hammer price reached: £120,000 (lot passed - "we'll have to see what we can do afterwards" - said the auctioneer.
So...was I right or was I wrong?
For all my initial pessimism, for book lovers, I would say this can probably be seen as a good result.
Out of the five items I randomly picked, only Little Nellie's missile successfully sold for more than the signed Fleming book. OK, someone bidded £120k that wasn't enough to secure the Bond artwork, so arguably two out of my five chosen objects attracted more money than a signed book from the creator of Bond himself. But the book held up well.
What does this tell us?
As a lover of books, I'm obviously biased, and I will always 'want' the original stories themselves - the first editions - to be at least as equally prized as random objects that appeared in the Bond films - films which (over time) increasingly diverged from the original source material themselves.
But of course, I can also see that maybe I'm not comparing apples with apples.
Movie items do seem to hold a unique cache that books do not - maybe even signed ones.
As one-off items, they have scarcity (there's probably more signed books out there then there are Drax ray guns are out there), and by virtue of them seldom coming to the market, when they do, people want a piece of them. When something is part of cinematic history, it seems that item becomes transformed.
In the past I've blogged about whether film fans are typically book collectors, and indeed, whether the films are 'needed' for the books to remain relevant, part of our national consciousness and ultimately popular. So I'm not going to bash movie artifact collectors.
On the other hand, I still think I would have been rather annoyed if some tatty-looking fake prop gold bars realised even more than what they did (I'm still staggered about how much they did raise). But that, I suppose, is the magic of the movies, and Goldfinger (the film) - is, for many, 'the' template for a Bond movie, and the best of the Connery films.
Most people nowadays (I would argue), will have grown up having watched the James Bond films, and so they see the films as their first point of reference to the character of Bond.
Some might then turn to the written material. An even smaller number may then go on to collect the books in a hard-core sort of way.
Those who would described themselves as true bibliophiles - that is book collectors first and foremost - probably have a passing interest in the films, but are not so fervent about when they next one's out, or who's playing the title role. They want the books because they have an affinity with the writing of Fleming.
Very rarely, I would posit, do you have ardent collectors of both the books and the associated film artefacts.
So (probably), the bidders at both these auctions were most likely two very different sorts of collectors - and arguably it was unfair for me to pitch the two head-to-head.
What clearly is the case, is that Bond is still seen as someone fans want a 'piece of'. What a great conversation starter a glass case with two gold bars from Goldfinger would be!
But ought the books be better valued? Maybe.
There were other items that were also in the Propstore auction - and these 'did' sell for significantly more than the signed On Her Majesty' Secret Service book.
They included one of James Bond's own guns from The World is not enough (which sold for a hammer price of £15,000!).
Also selling for very big money - and was arguably the closest item to the signed On Her Majesty's Secret Service book - was artwork by Syd Cain, of Blofeld's coat of arms - used in the On Her Majesty's Secret Service movie. This sold for a whopping hammer price of £10,0000. A Propstore item that was the closest we came to resembling a 'book' was Pierce Brosnan's screen-used James Bond passport. The hammer went down on this at £3,000 (see below):
Overall, I suppose I'm happy that the market for anything Bond-related does seem boyant still - especially the movie-related stuff.
Perhaps it's because fans need something to fill the void between the films; perhaps because the early movies are slipping into being seen as classics.
Do I wish Ian Fleming books were considered to be just as iconic as the film stuff though? Probably.
I know the books are - for the time being at least - more numerous, and that puts them lower down the pecking order.
I also know collecting shouldn't be a competition. We like what we like and we collect what we like.
I think that overall, book collectors are probably a more circumspect bunch.
Many probably don't consider books to be treasured items they should frame or put behind a glass case. They rightly see them as objects to handle and read, and enjoy. And that's fine too.
As I say, the book did well. And the movie stuff did mostly well too.
At least one thing is proven here: James Bond still matters to people.
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