Bond bargains and that bikini

First sales have innovation on their side. For the follow-on, it is important to provide something spectacular as a hook to revitalise Bond afficionados. Ms Andress’s bikini, which she wore when she immortalised the role of Bond Girl Honey Ryder, certainly fulfilled the role and ended up making £35,000, selling to Robert Earl of Planet Hollywood, into the bargain in the February 14 auction, although this was not the sale’s top price. That was provided by Bond’s 1965 Aston Martin DB5 as used in Goldeneye, which sold to private collector Max Reid for £140,000.

The vast majority of serious Bond fans, and those with a passing interest in Ian Fleming’s famous secret agent as a source of cultish collectables, do not have this much to spare for one-off purchases. So, what could Christie’s sale offer to those of more modest means? If your limit was £250, for example, what could you hope to buy at this sale?

First off, it has to be said that the majority of the 294 lots on offer, just under 90 per cent, fell outside that price limit. At one level this is an indication of just how much the Bond Memorabilia market has advanced in recent years, but it also reflects the auction houses’ preference for the more profitable at the upper end of the price bracket.

There is cheaper vintage Bond merchandise out there but you would probably need to look to dealers or fairs to find it in quantity. Nevertheless, with sums like £650 for a gilt metal and black ‘diamond’ fish brooch, worn by Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny in From Russia with Love, or the astonishing £3500 paid for three signatures from each of the actors that played the Bond villain Blofeld mounted with three accompanying black and white stills, it seems plain that film props and memorabilia directly associated with a Bond film are beyond that £250 budget. At this level one is looking instead at some of the toys and period merchandise and certain elements of publicity material such as the less popular classes of poster.

So, amongst the opening toy section of Christie’s sale, £180 would have secured you a 1966 Strombecker no 8630 plastic bodied kit of Bond’s Aston Martin with box, stickers and instruction sheet; £190 a Corgi die-cast Diamonds are Forever moon buggy in original box; £200 a group of three Mattel Bond Agente 007 character dolls, and a 4x4 made for the Mexican market all with original boxes, and £240 for a 1965 complete set of Gilbert James Bond Secret Agent 007 characters in their original unopened blister packs.

A large 3ft 7in x 2ft 4in (109 x 72cm) sheet of uncut bubblegum cards each printed with stills and characters from Moonraker was another example of affordable merchandising at £160, although two mid-Sixties boxes of Thunderball bubble gum, each holding approximately 70 packets containing a strip of gum and two cards made £600.

In terms of posters one is looking at prices in the upper hundreds or the thousands for British and American vintage examples. It tends to be the foreign language versions which are more affordable. For example, while a British quad for From Russia with Love went for no less than £2600, a lot containing two similar sized posters, one Spanish, one Argentinian, for the same film and for Casino Royale sold for just £130 and a Belgian Goldfinger poster measuring 211/2in x 321/2in (55 x 83cm) made £220.

There was some other affordable publicity material. A cinema foyer standee, or cardboard cut-out figure, featuring Pierce Brosnan as Bond in The World is Not Enough took £160, and another, unassembled in original packaging for Octopussy, went together with an Octopussy Wacky WallWalker (as handed out at the US premiere) and a 1963 Japanese prototype vinyl Miss Moneypenny doll, sold for £220.

A couple of more unusual entries were a printed service sheet for the 1964 memorial service for Ian Fleming held at St Bartholomew the Great Church that made £170, and two ink and felt pen concept drawings for Bond toys at £150. These last were part of a group of mid-1960s drawings by designer Fred Hollinger who was hired by the New York toy manufacturer American Character to assist in developing a range of Bond toys for boys. However, this particular lot featuring sheets of ring and compact designs, were plainly aimed at their girl customers.