Ian Fleming rebinds - The continuing story: The Spy Who Loved Me

My latest rebind is here! Amazingly, I'm now 10 books down, with only four more left to go...

If any of you out there have been following jamesbondfirsteditions.co.uk for any length of time (thanks to the many that do), you'll know by now that as well as being a seller of James Bond first editions, I'm a collector too, and something of a part-time designer/preserver/restorer of books.

It all started a good five or more years ago, when, after buying an extremely tatty (and barely held together) first edition of Casino Royal, I decided I couldn't let this book deteriorate and something needed to be done to it to save it from its inevitable demise.

It was then that I decided to get it re-bound - but to try (if I could), to do a better job of it than I'd seen with others.

Project Casino Royale duly completed though, I had a niggle that I couldn't shake. What if I could gradually do a complete set of rebinds - all done to the the same basic design template I'd set myself for Casino Royale? Surely this would be set that would look pretty amazing when complete.

At the time, I didn't quite realise how ambitious this idea would be.

A project like this require great patience. Firstly, patience is required to actually find suitable donor books that can be used without worrying that I've destroyed a perfectly good edition (the rule being I would only break a book up if it had very poor boards, but excellent innards!).

Second, is the patience that's required for actually trying to replicate each cover as exactly as it can.

I've written about this in more depth here, because generally speaking, each successive book seems to have illustrations that are successively more complicated than before, and certainly have designs that a much harder to reproduce cleanly as gilt on leather. The design process includes liaising with an actual CAD designer, getting metal blocks bespokely-made, and a testing process to ensure they can actually recreate these iconic book jackets.

The process for making this rebind is much the same as in previous blogs (see links at bottom of the page), so this week I'm more just showing off my latest arrival - book 10 in the series (yes, I've finally hit double figures) - The Spy Who Loved Me.

I know I'm biassed, and I know I've waxed lyrical about all of the rebound books I've done, but I must say, I'm particularly happy with how The Spy Who Loved Me has turned out.

Deservedly-so, this was one of the obviously titles that needed its extra red foil detailing (following in the footsteps of Goldgfinger, Thunderball, Casino Royale), and I think the carnation - a tricky flower to show its petals well), looks superb.

It's credit to the skill of my binder that the inpression of the carnation (using a separate block, remember, that needs to be lined up exactly with the stork), has come out so crisply.

What was also a production process headache, was how well (ie thinly) we could do the cross-hatching on the blade's handle. Once more, I feel my binder excelled in getting this imprinted so well and so definitely [not easy due to the non-smooth surface of the leather itself]. Small details like doing the burned out matches and the torn ring-folder-edged paper were also details we had to get just right.

It's sometimes forgotten that there is as much detailing on the slipcase as there is on book, and this rebind is no exception - with the title (replicating the lettering on the spine of the book), also appearing on the back of the box.

I'm also particularly pleased that this is an example of The Spy Who Loved Me that features the rare 'dropped quad' on the title page.

I had a wait some time before I spotted one that had excellent inner pages, but had bad enough boards to justify pulling this book apart and having it rebound.

The expanding rebind family...

To me, hitting double figures in terms of having 10 fully finished books really is something of a milestone.

With only four books left to go, I really am starting to feel like I'm on the home straight.

My ambition is to try and finish the set off this year if I can.

All of the hard books-to-get have been done now. I'm just left with the easiest books to get hold off now - so availability won't be a problem.

What is more of a problem, is that painfully (!) I've long-since passed the point where the cost doing a rebind is less than the cost/value of the donor book. So now, it's just a race to get this set complete.

Why? Well, every year the cost of the labour, materials and design process have all gone up.

Each new book is now costing me amost twice what it was when I started with just my first book, Casino Royale (especially if there is extra red detailing involved).

When it is done though (and it 'will' get done), I'm definitely going to enjoy sitting back and looking at them, and being proud of what I've achived. As collectors will know, when you're this far in, you just have to finish things off!

Stay tuned for the next installments.

I can't wait (fingers-crossed) to take a picture of the full set from Casino Royale to Octopussy & The Living Daylights!