A View to a Kill-ing: Sotheby’s set for historic James Bond auction
Mayfair’s Bond Street will next month host an exhibition dedicated to its spy namesake as part of an online auction of memorabilia from nearly 70 years of the British franchise.
“Bond on Bond Street” will see Sotheby’s give fans the chance to get their hands on a piece of 007’s history, with film posters, first edition novels and even an iconic car up for grabs.
The online sale will take place between 27 October and 13 November, with potential buyers given license to size up the lots in the flesh between 6 and 10 November.
There are four sales in total, with items from Bond’s debut in Casino Royale to his latest venture, the recently delayed No Time to Die.
A revised typescript of fourth novel Diamonds are Forever, complete with author Ian Fleming’s annotations, is expected to fetch up to £120,000.
And a first edition presentation copy of Moonraker inscribed by Fleming to detective fiction writer Raymond Chandler could go for £100,000.
For anybody looking to make their spy dreams a reality, an Aston Martin DB5 – Bond’s car of choice in eight films – will be for private sale, with those interested asked to contact Sotherby’s.
The first ever poster for a Bond film, by Mitchell Hooks, will also be up for grabs – for anyone with about £25,000 to spare.
For those whom these prices leave shaken, not stirred, there will be a range of other items with prices starting at a more affordable £100.
Sotheby’s is a fitting location for this celebration of Bond, both as Fleming’s choice of auctioneer and a part of the James Bond story.
An auction sequence in 1983’s Octopussy, in which the spy bids for a Faberge egg, was filmed on the auction house’s Bond Street premises.