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Auction archive: Lot number 75

James Bond | Birds of the West Indies, 1960, first UK edition, signed by James Bond

James Bond on Bond Street
8 Sep 2023 - 22 Sep 2023
Estimate
£1,500 - £2,000
ca. US$1,872 - US$2,496
Price realised:
£3,048
ca. US$3,805
Auction archive: Lot number 75

James Bond | Birds of the West Indies, 1960, first UK edition, signed by James Bond

James Bond on Bond Street
8 Sep 2023 - 22 Sep 2023
Estimate
£1,500 - £2,000
ca. US$1,872 - US$2,496
Price realised:
£3,048
ca. US$3,805
Beschreibung:

James BondBirds of the West Indies. London: Collins, 1960
SIGNED BY JAMES BOND to half-title ("To Iris [?] | Happy birding in the West Indies! | Jim Bond"), FIRST UK EDITION, 8vo, in-text illustrations, publisher's red cloth, illustrated dust-wrapper, very slight marginal fraying to dust-wrapper
"IT STRUCK ME THAT THIS BRIEF, UN-ROMANTIC, ANGLO-SAXON AND YET VERY MASCULINE NAME WAS JUST WHAT I NEEDED, AND SO A SECOND JAMES BOND WAS BORN"
The work that gave James Bond his name.
James Bond was an American ornithologist and the leading authority on birds of the West Indies for decades. Fleming owned a copy of this book at Goldeneye, his estate in Jamaica, where he sat down to write Casino Royale in 1952. The author explained:
"I was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought by God, [James Bond] is the dullest name I ever heard." (Ian Fleming, The New Yorker, 21 April 1962)
Years later, Fleming wrote in a letter to Mrs Bond: "In return, I can only offer you or James Bond unlimited use of the name Ian Fleming for any purpose you may think fit. Perhaps one day your husband will discover a particularly horrible species of bird which he would like to christen in an insulting fashion by calling it Ian Fleming" (The New York Times, 17 February 1989)

Auction archive: Lot number 75
Auction:
Datum:
8 Sep 2023 - 22 Sep 2023
Auction house:
Sotheby's
34-35 New Bond St.
London, W1A 2AA
United Kingdom
+44 (0)20 7293 5000
+44 (0)20 7293 5989
Beschreibung:

James BondBirds of the West Indies. London: Collins, 1960
SIGNED BY JAMES BOND to half-title ("To Iris [?] | Happy birding in the West Indies! | Jim Bond"), FIRST UK EDITION, 8vo, in-text illustrations, publisher's red cloth, illustrated dust-wrapper, very slight marginal fraying to dust-wrapper
"IT STRUCK ME THAT THIS BRIEF, UN-ROMANTIC, ANGLO-SAXON AND YET VERY MASCULINE NAME WAS JUST WHAT I NEEDED, AND SO A SECOND JAMES BOND WAS BORN"
The work that gave James Bond his name.
James Bond was an American ornithologist and the leading authority on birds of the West Indies for decades. Fleming owned a copy of this book at Goldeneye, his estate in Jamaica, where he sat down to write Casino Royale in 1952. The author explained:
"I was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought by God, [James Bond] is the dullest name I ever heard." (Ian Fleming, The New Yorker, 21 April 1962)
Years later, Fleming wrote in a letter to Mrs Bond: "In return, I can only offer you or James Bond unlimited use of the name Ian Fleming for any purpose you may think fit. Perhaps one day your husband will discover a particularly horrible species of bird which he would like to christen in an insulting fashion by calling it Ian Fleming" (The New York Times, 17 February 1989)

Auction archive: Lot number 75
Auction:
Datum:
8 Sep 2023 - 22 Sep 2023
Auction house:
Sotheby's
34-35 New Bond St.
London, W1A 2AA
United Kingdom
+44 (0)20 7293 5000
+44 (0)20 7293 5989
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