Last year I speculated that For Your Eyes Only 'could' exist bound with silver foil on its spine. It was just a theory until I was messaged last week by someone who said they'd found one...
The brilliant thing about collecting James Bond first editions is that despite only comprising 14 books, the minutia that it’s possible to get into is almost limitless.
In previous blogs I’ve discussed everything from cloth types, different ‘states’, small jacket differences, textual variations between early proofs and the final published text, as well as advance bindings, library bindings and much more besides.
But one of the surprise pieces amongst all of these was one I did on what I called the ‘silver linings’ that some books display – that is, books displaying silver foil lettering on the spine, when it ‘should’ be gilt.
In this blog, I revealed how three particular books are ‘supposed’ to be bound with gilt titles to their spine can – but on rare occasions - can instead be found to sport this strange silver difference.
The Man With The Golden Gun is one of them (above right), and is particularly rare with a silver spine [Gilbert says that ‘occasionally a copy can be found in silver Nuvap’ [the name of the foil used].
Two others can occasionally be found with a silver spine too.
These are first editions of Goldfinger (above left) and some first impression copies of Thunderball.
But now an update is needed!
In discussing these variations, it was noted how Fleming books designed to have gold-lettered spines from the outset are actually the exception to the rule, with most of the other books having silver foil as their default colour.
Books with silver spines by default are Moonraker, Diamonds Are Forever, From Russia With Love (‘Ian Fleming’ lettering), Dr No, The Spy Who Loved Me, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, You Only Live Twice and Octopussy & The Living Daylights).
For this very reason, it was suggested that the reason we sometimes see silver used on books supposed to be gilded, was because gold foil was expensive; more likely to be ordered in only ‘just enough’ quantities, and was arguably under- ordered, meaning silver was used as a substitute to make up the shortfall when the gold inevitably ran out.
We argued that it’s for this reason, we ‘do’ see spines supposed to be gold sporting the occasional silver spine, but we ‘don’t’ see spines that were supposed to be silver sporting gold ones instead. [The theory being silver was unlikely to be under-ordered, and there wouldn’t have been expensive gold foil just hanging around if the silver foil ran out.]
Following so far!!??
This pre-amble is necessary, because having said all the above, I postulated that if the Fleming books that are ‘gold-spined-by-default’ can sometimes sport silver spines, then it leaves two further books bound-up with gold spines by default that ‘could’ (theoretically), have silver spines: Live and Let Die and For Your Eyes Only.
This theory was thrown out there as a possibility, because if exhausted supplies of gilt have caused other books to be completed with silver on their spine, then it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that the same could happen with these other two titles.
I ended by saying I’d not seen any examples of this, so the notion was more theory than reality…
However….
Last week a collector friend of mine from Sweden said he ‘had’ indeed seen an example of For Your Eyes Only with silver-foil on the spine.
It was a first edition, and he said he'd sold it on to a friend of his.
Obviously, I was quite excited to hear about this, so I asked him if he could share a picture of it with me.
I'm pleased to say he did, and here it is (left) - showing the silver spine book on the right, placed alongside a standard gilt spine.
(PS In case anyone is wondering, I'm assured the right hand book shown is indeed silver - my friend tells me it's just the light, and if there is a hint of gold to the right hand book, it's possibly some reflection from the gilt spine next to it).
The fact this book is now known to exist with a silver foil spine seems to confirm that my theory about the gilt running out, and needing silver to replace it holds water.
So... I decided to have a quick hunt to see if I could find any others.
Clearly differences really can be hidden in plain sight, because I surprised myself by finding (quite quickly), this second impression example of For Your Eyes Only (currently for sale on a popular selling platform).
As can very clearly be seen, it has a distinctive silver spine. See below:
Given that we know the time gap between the first and the second impressions for this title was very short (just a couple of months: April-June), I would argue there is a very good chance that the silver first edition that my Swedish friend has was one of the very last books of the first impression print run [which fits with the theory that the gold gilt had run out].
Moreover, it follows that this second impression shown above must have been one of the earliest 2nd impressions, bound before stocks of the run-out gilt had been replenished.
The more I've looked into this, the more I'm convinced I'm right.
This is because other second impression copies of For Your Eye Only that I’ve looked at all appear to revert back to the standard gold lettering on the spine (as this second impression example, also for sale right now - left shows). No doubt here, the stocks of gilt had been replenished.
Whilst I' haven't done an exhaustive search, all the other second impressions I've seen do show gold gilt, substantiating my view that a tiny number of the very first second impressions exist having been bound with silver foil spines (before there was gilt back in stock again).
I find this fascinating...
I get the fact that for some people, these machinations can be seen as a level of detail too far.
But I personally find these observations fascinating.
These foil changes tell you so much more about a book’s production; what was considered acceptable by the producers of the books to allow, and how practical problems (like foil running out), were just worked around.
They also offer a clue as to where the very book one might be holding sits in the timeline of the print-run (early or late) – something you can’t often tell.
Does this matter?
Maybe it doesn’t to some. But to those who see books as more than just items, but as having possessing insights into the wider whole of book publishing, I think these small extra tidbits matter.
And it brings us to one remaining question – that only leaves us with Live and Let Die as the last remaining ‘gold-by-default’ book that has the potential to exist out there with silver lettering to the spine.
In my original blog, I said I felt it was unlikely a first impression example of Live and Let Die would be found with silver letters to its spine (lower print run – 9,000 = less likelihood of the gold running out).
But now I’m not so sure!!
Who's going to be the first person to find one I wonder?
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