Last week: When 'rare' Ian Fleming signatures became commonplace

Last week 'rare' Ian Fleming signatures were distinctly 'un-rare'. Perhaps more accurately, it was one of those 'rare weeks' where there was a glut of them suddenly on the market:

Very early on in my James Bond collecting days (long before I launched my own Bond book selling business), I remember being firmly put in my place by a well-known Ian Fleming book dealer (not from Harringtons), being quite stubborn in telling me that Casino Royale was ‘not’ a rare book.

At the time, I was desperate for a copy of this iconic title [any copy in fact – for condition was not important to me].

Slightly shy about asking him to be on the look-out for any he might come across, I think I blurted out something along the lines of: "Any copy is better than nothing, because, you know, it’s such a rare book.’" Well, I might as well have told him his mother had died. The put-down he duly metered out was such a chastening experience, it actually stirred a resolve in me to find one for myself, thank you very much! (And I remember it also being the primary motivation for starting jamesbondfirsteditions.co.uk). I wanted to challenge - as I saw it - the pretentious world of fine book selling; I wanted to make buying books a bit more accessible to ordinary folk like me).

Looking back at this experience now, I am, of course, older, and (I hope) a bit more wiser. And I’m more forgiving too. I suspect that what this exchange was really reflective of, was more a misunderstanding of the worlds we both lived in at that point. To me a Casino Royale was an almost unobtainable object to even consider owning. To this seller – who probably sees them week-in, week-out (or certainly very frequently), they’re just another, frequently circulating book – a title of which there are always copies available for sale (right now, there’s nine on Abe alone, not including other outlets I know about that also have them for sale).

So why do I say all this, I hear you ask?

I mention it, because I think this story neatly illustrates the fact that concepts like ‘rarity’ are – sadly all rather subjective, and not actually linked to things we would expect them to be – like numerical availability/scarcity. In fact, unfortunately, if you have money, things that seem rare to most of us, are not actually very rare at all. It seems to be the way of the world that things often become available when one has enough cash.

My recollection about this Casino Royale bookseller leapt into my mind again because last week can only be described as a bumper one for the availability of things that I’ve always considered to be ultra-rare – anything signed by Ian Fleming.

Last week though, was one of those weeks where items that don’t ordinarily come up for auction, all seemed to come up – at once – and on the exact same day – 27th March. For those looking to buy anything signed by Fleming, this was all your Christmas’s at once.

But, all appearing at high-end auctions, these items once again prove the point that if you have enough money, the ultra rare can still be bought. And last week, those with healthy bank balances were spoiled for choice.

The star lot (in my opinion) was this beautifully-inscribed Thunderball, warmly inscribed by Fleming on the free endpaper to Hugo and Reine Pitman (Hugo and Fleming had known each other since the 1930s – Hugo being a senior partner at brokerage firm, Rowe and Pitman – set up by his father]. The estimate was a cool $8,000-$12,000, but – but in a show of the continued strength of signed Ian Fleming books, the realised price (including buyer’s premium) was a estimate-smashing $16,640 (or £12,859).

Competing for collectors’ attentions though (and at the same auction house), was this interesting (above), piece of Fleming ephemera – a similarly worded/heavily inscribed annotation by Fleming himself inside the first printing of ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’ – a book for which Fleming wrote the foreward. This association copy, presented to the book’s publisher, is humorously inscribed to Margaret Hughes, mother of Larry Hughes, president of the publishing company, William Morrow (and son-in-law to the aforementioned Hugo Pitman). In describing Larry, Fleming deemed him to be innocent (so far) of all the sins the book mentioned.

On the face of it, this book is very similar to Thunderball - it has a similar length annotation; nicely written; about people well-known to Fleming. What Thunderball reveals, however, is the power of Fleming’s scribbles within a Bond book, as opposed to any other medium.

The Seven Deadly Sins book, which – as I say – is just as wittily inscribed by Fleming – sold for considerably less. It sale price was $3,840 including fees (around £2,976).

Looking at it mathematically, Thunderball (a 13-word inscription), comes out costing £990 per word; this second book (longer, at 17 words in length), was somebody’s for just £295 a word – a pretty wide difference.

On the same day as all this though, came this third book – a 1964 (4th impression) of For Your Eyes Only.

For sale at an auction house in the US, collectors had something a bit more prosaic to consider.

Offered was a simple, and very genuine-looking ‘Ian Fleming’ signature - one which would be perfectly good in most other circumstances. But, this one didn’t actually get a single bid (the starting price was $5,000).

So what happened?

When signatures are literally just a name, and devoid of anything that includes personal friends and acquaintances – people that easily link Fleming to an inscription – they become finicky things to assess.

The main obvious question becomes – 'is it genuine?' The previous two (inscription-heavy) annotations are such that the signature at the end does not create this rather basic worry.

All the more problematic is the fact that this book came out in March 1964 – just six months before Fleming actually died. Anything that gets this close to his ‘death-date’ invariably attracts further questions about whether it is genuine.

I wonder if this frightened people off. I actually have no doubt it’s genuine, and it’s currently up on ebay – with an asking price of $10,000 or best offer.

But it just goes to show that it only takes just a few things to spook collectors into not wanting to part with their hard-earned cash.

Hierarchies of signatures

It seems to me that in looking at the signatures presented so far, there is a clear hierarchy impacting prices.

Lengthy, witty inscriptions; those that conjure up an insight into Fleming’s head (and which have a clear line of sight in terms of provenance), are still going for the big bucks.

After Thunderball I think the flat-signed For Your Eyes Only signature would have ordinarily easily sold for the next highest price, if there weren’t some worries about whether Fleming was still actually alive at the time.

But - as the Seven Deadly Sins example shows - a Fleming signature (if people want one), on anything non Bond-related is potentially the best value - and perhaps the most under-valued at the moment. The message on the inside of The Seven Deadly Sins is just as witty and ebullient as the Thunderball one – but could be bought at a fraction of the price. (And, arguably, it could be said anything Fleming signed is Bond-related, given he is the author).

I would rate The Seven Deadly Sins inscription as a very good buy. I hope it’s gone to a collector. It would depress me slightly if I saw this reappear at a high-end boutique dealer’s shop at double the price.

Addendums-a-plenty

It’s worth saying at this point, that last week was a fantastic week for seeing signed Fleming material – and maybe we won’t see quite as many items vying for people’s attention all on the say day for a while.

But last week’s sales did follow hot on the heels of a big auction at Bonahms the week earlier (on 20th March), where once again, several signed Fleming’s were available.

Of note, was number 162 (out of the 250) of the Ian Fleming-signed limited edition of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The total price was a very healthy £11,520 including the buyers’ premium.

One lot on from this was this signed You Only Live Twice – an author’s presentation copy to Cyril Connolly inscribed on front free endpaper "To/ Prolific Connolly-san/ from/ Ian [?] chief Fleming-san." (See below):

Once more we see the rules of having a wordy inscription, plus strong association and being in a Bond title - all come to play. This sold for £11,520 including premium.

Finally, also selling at the same auction was a Fleming-signed ‘Thrilling Cities’ – with the more casual and unusual ‘Ian’ rather than his full-name.

It sold for £3,328 including the buyer’s premium.

As we can see, the hierarchy of price follows this book too: It shows that a Fleming signature can be picked up for a lot less, when it’s not on anything directly Bond related (ie an actual Bond adventure).

And…that wasn’t all!

The week before Bonhams saw a further two Ian Fleming signed items also go under the hammer (on 12th March this year) - so that’s eight items in March of this year alone (who said signatures were ‘rare’!!?).

These are signatures ‘not’ in Bond books, and nor are they in non-bond books. Instead they are contained within what might be termed ‘correspondence’.

This is possibly another category of Fleming signatures that deserves a more in-depth look at in the future.

Some might not see these signatures as hugely important, and a lot of them are transactional letters between Fleming and his publishers, or other acquaintances. But I think these two items went under the radar somewhat. They did not sell – but probably should have done!!

The first is a short letter to Dr. Mary K. Williams, who must have written to Fleming about his choice of butter in one of the Bond books. His reply: “Thank you very much for your cautionary letter of September 3rd and I will see to it that James Bond eats the right kind of butter in future. But I am terribly sorry to hear of your misfortune, and I send you my and James Bond's wishes for an early recovery.”

As the auction house notes, not only is it unusual in that it “contains the seldom-seen presence of two “James Bond” references," but "direct mentions by Fleming of special agent 007 are extremely scarce and highly sought-after.”

The estimate was bids starting at $5,000.

It was followed by next lot – which I believe is even better – sent to Reginald William Thompson (1904-1977), an Army officer, journalist, author, and friend of Ian Fleming:

In it, the letter states: “Your wine is far too new for the aged fiascos of Fleet Street. I shall never forget that bed of roses story about you — in Belgium I think it was — at the end of the war. One day James Bond must emulate that exploit.”

Fleming was true to his word, would revisit “that bed of roses story” in From A View To A Kill, one of five short stories published in the 1960 book For Your Eyes Only. 

As the auction house again noted: “Fleming letters referencing his iconic James Bond character are especially scarce, with this particular example all the more desirable given its creative connection to a well-known 007 short story.”

Again, the estimate was from $5,000 upwards, but did not sell.

If these come up again at some point – I reckon they could be a great buy!

And very finally…

Ian Fleming - I think this signature is authentic

The signatures highlighted in auctions on 27th March were ‘not’ the only Ian Fleming signatures up for sale last week.

This Fleming signature (that makes it the 9th during the month of March 2025), was also up for grabs – put together with a fairly common photo, and presented as a framed item.

Maybe the signature came from an autograph book?

It didn’t have any back-story or evidence about where it might have come from, but it did carry an auction house COA, and I thought it looked good, so I decided to put a bid on it. And I won.

OK, so it’s not anywhere near a Fleming in-book signature, but neither did it cost what an in-book signature would cost.

I'm currently thinking I might remove the paper from it's frame, and have it loose inside one of my Casino Royale first impressions. That would seem fitting!