Sotheby’s launches bumper auction of Bond memorabilia as Dr. No turns sixty

AUCTION house Sotheby’s is set to mark sixty years of James Bond on screen with a collection of over 100 pieces of sought-after memorabilia.

The ‘Bond on Bond Street’ collection includes a replica of Scaramanga’s pistol from The Man with the Golden Gun as well as a series of so-called transparencies, high-resolution movie images used at the time by colour newspapers when black and white images wouldn’t do.

As well as a host of movie items, the collection will also see a series of first editions of Ian Fleming’s Bond novels going under the hammer, with an estimated price of as much as £15,000 placed on a copy of Thunderball – once presented by the author of the spy series to the then-editor of the Sunday Times.
Whilst the auction collection focuses on classic Bond era items, the film franchise remains a valuable enterprise in the modern day.

The late 2021 release of No Time To Die, which grossed £96.5m in just the final quarter in the UK, is credited with giving cinema chains a much-needed revenue boost after the pandemic-induced balance sheet battering many took in 2020 and 2021.

The items in the Sotheby’s collection, James Bond on Bond Street, will be exhibited in a highlights gallery at the auction house’s New Bond Street premises from September 1-6.