James Bond First Editions

The Man With the Golden Gun.

FLEMING, Ian Lancaster (1908-1964).

London: Jonathan Cape, 1965. [Thriller] FIRST ISSUE, second state, binding B, ASSOCIATION COPY. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.221; [1]. Publisher's dark grey cloth-effect paper over boards with bronze lettering to the spine, plain covers, patterned green endpapers. In the original pictorial dust-jacket illustrated by Richard Chopping, priced at 18s. Decorative bookplate, SIGNED by Amherst Villiers, also SIGNED by his daughter Janie Villers in our presence. Contents clean, no inscriptions. Some gentle toning, minor waer to jacket. Near fine. Housed in an elegant cloth-covered clamshell box. Engineer Charles Amherst Villiers (1900-1991) designed a supercharger for the 4½ litre 'Blower' Bentley, the gearing for which was made by David Brown & Son [D.B.S.], prior to their acquisition of Aston Martin, a struggling motor company previously funded by Count Louis Zborowski. His close friend Ian Fleming chose the 'blower' as James Bond's own vehicle in Casino Royale, plus a company Aston Martin D.B.3 for the Goldfinger assignment, and later consulted Villiers while writing Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, an adventure book about a vintage car based on Zborowski's 1920 Zeppelin-powered Mercedes. Item #72341

Gilbert, Jon: Ian Fleming The Bibliography, A13a (1.3).

Price: £1,850.00