This Friday, Bond will grace our cinema screens for the 23rd time. The film, Skyfall, received critical acclaim at its premiere, and is generating excitement in Bond circles.
Counting ourselves as ‘Bond fans’, we dug back into Marler Haley’s archive to find some of the posters we printed for some of the more ‘vintage’ films in the series. The subsequent wave of nostalgia inspired us to pull together a list of the most coveted categories of Bond memorabilia, and throw open the floor to submissions from readers of their favourite collectibles.
#5: Special edition posters
The mass-printed advertorial posters are good, but original artworks and special edition limited prints are the most savoured collectibles; the original artwork for ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ sold at auction for £79,250. Other fine examples are the posters for ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’, which were printed by Marler Haley back in 1977:
(images from Vintage Movie Posters)
Items held or used by Bond, Bond girls, baddies, or anyone else in the films attract different levels of desire. The poker table and set from ‘Casino Royale’, for example, sold for £85,250.
#3: Bond’s watch
Bond’s watches are great examples of product placement done right: exposure to a target audience, without seeming cheesy and forced. James’ watch from Skyfall sold for £157,250 at a recent Christie’s auction. Unfortunately, the watches don’t come complete with gadgets that Q may (or may not have) added.
#2: Bond’s weapon
Who wouldn’t want to own one of the replica guns from a Bond film? Sean Connery’s Walther PPK from the poster shoot for £277,250 at auction, and didn’t even make it into the film.
#1: Bond’s car
The best comes at a price: Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger and Thunderball sold for a huge £2,800,000 in 2010 (at the time that was the most expensive piece of film memorabilia ever sold at auction). Imagine cruising in Bond’s
If you’ve got any pieces of James Bond memorabilia you’d like to show off or some memorabilia that you would like, post them in the comments below! Let’s see what’s out there.
