I EXPECT YOU TO PAY, MR BOND: RARE UNCORRECTED PROOF COPY OF GOLDFINGER SELLS FOR £1,800 AT NORFOLK AUCTION
A rare, uncorrected proof copy of Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger has sold for a hammer price of £1,800 at auction in Norfolk - three times the pre-sale estimate.
The 1959 proof copy of the seventh James Bond novel, published in 1959, was the star lot at a two day book auction at Keys Fine Art Auctioneers, in Aylsham.
Uncorrected proof copies are produced for review by copy-editors in order to weed out typos and grammatical errors. They are also given out to book reviewers, librarians and book dealers, to enable reviews and promotions to be completed prior to the publication of the book. They are not intended for sale, and so are relatively rare.
“Not all proof copies hold much value – in fact sometimes they are less valuable than the first edition itself,” said Keys head of books Robert Henshilwood. “But anything to do with James Bond has a high collectability quotient, and the bidding for this copy was heated and dramatic – worthy of a scene in a Bond film.”
The book, which had a pre-sale estimate of £500-£600, eventually sold for £1,800 (£2,115 including buyer’s premium).
Goldfinger was Ian Fleming’s seventh Bond novel, and in 1964 was the third to be made into a movie as part of the Bond franchise, starring Sean Connery as Bond and German actor Gert Fröbe as Auric Goldfinger, a gold tycoon who attempts to steal the US gold reserves from Fort Knox.
The novel was an instant success with both critics and the buying public, and introduced diminutive Korean character Oddjob.
Keys holds six two day book auctions every year. The next one takes place on Thursday 30th July and Friday 31st July.