Signed On Her Majesty's Secret Service - 250 were made, but how many survive?

Today, number 172 of the 250 Ian Fleming-signed limited editions of On Her Majesty's Secret Service was sold at auction. Unusually it was fresh to the market. Does this give hope that there are copies still out there, just waiting to be unearthed?

I’m fairly certain when I say that after a 1st edition, 1st impression of Casino Royale (the undisputed Holy Grail book for most collectors), there is probably only one other book that Ian Fleming collectors covet more than any other: one of the signed, limited edition bindings of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (OHMSS).

For obvious reason, this is a book that – in a single place – ticks all the collector boxes.

It’s a numbered limited edition run; it’s ‘very’ scare (only 250 copies, plus a further 35 un-numbered presentation copies), and of course, it bares the all-important signature of the man himself.

This latter point is important. Because in a world where fake signatures sadly exist, owning one of the limited edition OHMSS books is arguably one of the few cast-iron guarantees that the signature you possess is 100% genuine.

While fakes exist of The Man With The Golden Gun (featuring the gilt gun to the front board), I’ve never seen any book that’s tried to be passed off as one of limited edition OHMSS’s. Perhaps it’s because this book has an entirely different binding to the standard book. One can say, therefore, with a much certainty as is possible in life, that if you see one of these books for sale, it’s very much going to be the real deal.

But… where are all these books now?

Book number 172 sold this week at Bonhams - an example that was unknown to me before now

This is just the sort of question that gets my juices going.

Do we really have any idea about just how many of these special books still exist – some 62 years after they were first published?

The good news, is that thanks to the tiny number that were produced, plus the very obvious way individual books can be identified (ie by their unique 1-250 number), these books 'do' offer us a chance to really be able to answer this question.

...and I'm going to have a go at answering it so far

Some of you might know that over the last few years I’ve had something of a side project going: to try and see if I can trace, and document as many known copies of this rare book as possible.

As I see examples that are sold (typically at auction), or see copies put up for sale by dealers, they all get recorded, and all this information gets added to what I already have documented about other previous sales, or those that I know are held in collectors’ hands (some of whom want to remain anonymous).

The current estimate is that 200 of the 250 remain

In face-to-face conversations with Ian Fleming bibliographer, Jon Gilbert, I've been told that this particular book - owing to its higher cost, and higher desirability to start with - probably has a much lower than usual ‘wastage rate' - of about 20%.

In other words, around 20% of the 250 (or 20% of the 285 depending on whether you include the presentation copies), have probably been lost, destroyed, and are irretrievable. Simple maths suggests this translates to around 200 (out of 250), or around 228 (out of 285), physical books still technically existing. These are books either in private collections or held by book dealers themselves.

Obviously, this ‘technically’ available number is tiny compared to the number of collectors who would no doubt like to own one.

But how accurate is this estimation?

There are some signed OHMSS copies that we know alot about already:

·      We already know that the first ten copies were given to Ian Fleming himself for distribution to his friends/associates.

·      A further three copies were ordered by Amherst Villiers (and bear his bookplate).

·      Five more were ordered and labeled as ‘Staff’

·      We also know from Gilbert's bibliography that “numbers” (note the plural) of both “numbered and presentation copies are held in the Ian Fleming Bibliographical Archive.”

·      EON reportedly owns a numbered copy – number 30.

From the bullet points above, we can ascertain that at least two, but maybe three or even four numbered copies are held by the Bibliographical Fleming archive, and so are out of commission in terms of potential for ownership.

For the purposes of this blog let’s say the archive holds 4 of the numbered copies.

Add this to the copy that EON owns, that’s 5 copies (or already 2.5% of the 200 we think survive), that will likely NEVER be available for sale

Add this to the Villiers and Staff copies (8 in total) – then that makes 13 copies that we know about, and can assume are not in general circulation.

Assuming they all still exist (and I've certainly not seen any of them surface on the open market, see later) - then these 13 plus Fleming’s own copies already means we can account for 23 of the 200 we’re guessing exist (so more than 10% of the estimated surviving total).

So where does this leave the rest?

Here’s what I can share about my research as it currently stands.

Known numbered examples

Before I share my findings, it should be noted that I haven’t yet started to record mentions of presentational copies. This is because these are obviously un-numbered, and so it’s difficult to tell whether pictures of one book appearing in different places at different times aren’t simply the same book. The only way you could possibly tell them apart is if you could look at differences in the actual signatures. Collating numbers of presentation copies is a project I might save for another time.

In the meantime, this is what I know about actual numbered copies.

PS Some are examples that Gilbert has himself seen (and are included in his bibliography), but the vast majority are those I’ve personally researched, where I’ve seen physical evidence (ie photos, or records) that they actually exist:

Overall:

Of the 250 numbered editions, here’s some of the important numbers that matter:

4:

Of Fleming’s ten known about copies, I know of the existence of 4 of them. One (but the specific number is unknown), was given to Fleming’s secretary, Beryl Griffin-Williams.

46:

Outside of the first ten that Ian Fleming himself owned and distributed, I personally know of a further 46.

These are numbers:

11, 24, 25, 28, 30, 31, 36, 37, 39, 43, 56, 59,, 62, 63, 65, 74, 80, 92, 96, 98, 105, 106, 114, 115, 118, 124, 125, 128, 123, 143, 146, 148, 156, 162, 170, 172, 183, 187, 191, 203, 205, 219, 223, 224, 233, 236.

The latest one of these - number 172 (which was hitherto unknown to me), was sold only this week – at Bonhams, for a hammer price of £7,000 (excluding commission).

(See picture, left):

None of the 50 copies I've got details of feature the ‘Staff’ or Villiers bookplate markings, so if we assume the ‘Staff and Villiers’ books all exist still, a further 13 books can be added to this total.

This brings us up to a grand total of 63 books that have so-far been identified, that we we can pretty much say exist.

That's not bad going!

This figure is approaching one-third (32%) of the 200 books we assume/think/believe are still out there.

Put another way, one third of all the books believed to still exist actually have an indelible trail of their existence.

NOTE: One of the 46 numbered books I’ve got documented evidence or was sold as far back as 2007. For this book, and others I’ve seen that have sold more recently, I’m going to assume these books all still exist.

But what else can we learn?

For most of the books I’ve got evidence of, I also have details of where they were sold, and for how much, and when.

This is information I’d like to keep to myself, but I can draw out some useful general observations:

·      In the 2000’s, a numbered copy sold for a hammer price of $7,200 in 2007.

·      During the 2010s, the average auction-selling price for a numbered edition was £5,972 (not including auction fees). This average comprised five separate books.

·      In the 2020s (so far), this average auction selling price has increased to £7,364 (again, minus fees, so add another 30% to this).

·      The average asking price for a signed numbered OHMSS (ie books currenly for sale by book dealers), is £14,819

An interesting fact: some books come up time and again

Due to their limited availability, and their unique identification number, it’s also interesting to observe how the same book has a long tail to it, and is recorded to have turnsed up for sale more than once – often many years apart. These instances also show how prices have climbed.

For instance:

Book number 96 was sold by Bonhams only last year (price undisclosed), and is currently for sale by Raptis Rare Books. This bookseller was mostly likely the Bonhams buyer.

Book number 203 was once sold by PBA Galleries in 2007 for $7,200 including auction premium. This same book is now being offered by Peter Harrington for £13,750.

Book number 205 was sold in 2015 – for an unknown price. By 2023 it re-appeared on sale from Quintessential Rare Books (for £20,786.17). But by 2024 it was up for sale again – this time from Magnum Opus Rare Books – for £19,193.89– clearly a dealer-to-dealer sale.

Book number 223: Was previously sold by James Pickard (price unknown), and then appeared for sale on eBay for $22,400 in 2023.

Notable owners:

The signed OHMSS books seem to have had a particular affinity with writers or biographers/historians of Bond.

For example:

At one point, Fleming biographer, Otto Penzler owned two signed books – number 5 and number 146 respectively.

Number 5 (see above), was also the book Fleming inscribed to his longtime girlfriend, Lisl Jokl.

In terms of other notable Bond afficionado owners:

James Bond historian, John Griswold, owned number 39

Book number 187 was previously owned by Kingsley Amis

In 2017, book number 124 was sold by Richard Schenkman, who ran the US James Bond Fan Club and published ‘Bondage’ magazine.

I also believe Graham Rye, managing director at 007 MAGAZINE & ARCHIVE may have sold a signed OHMSS to fund the ongoing costs of James Bond Magazine (although I could be confusing this with a gold gilt The Man With the Golden Gun). Graham…if you’re reading - let me know!

Conclusions:

So what can we learn from all this?

I think what’s interesting, is that I've been able to prove that a significant number of these special books – perhaps more than you might have thought – still survive, with many having a well-known sales/online/catalogue history to them.

At any one time, there are usually five or six available for sale from rare book dealers – currently there are six signed copies available to buy right now.

Some of these are pictured above.

Books currently for sale are those through Lucius books (number 219, for £12,500); Peter Harrington (number 204 – also for £12,500); Peter Ellis (number 56, for £14,750); Jonkers Rare Books (number 128, £15,000); Raptis Rare Books/ West Hull Rare Books (number 96, for £14,971.24); and Magnum Opus Rare Books (number 205, for £19,193.89).

Baylis Rare Books also has one for sale although it’s not known if this is a presentation copy or not – it doesn’t say either way (strange), and it doesn’t state a number either. This is up for sale, for £13,500.

But here's the $64,000 question: Are all the signed books accounted for?

The question I'm pretty sure most people would love to know the answer to is whether or not the 60-odd books I know about really are it - ie that there really isn't the 200 as Gilbert suggests.

For instance, does the fact that we sometimes see the same book reappear multiple times, mean that buyers and sellers are fishing from the same stagnant pool, and actually there are not that many more ‘market fresh' books still out there to be unearthed?

On this latter point, the dreamer in me still wants there to be more out there, just waiting to be found.

I’m personally certain that there are others that are surely out there; to be found in private collections - collections that will never have appeared on the open market.

How can I be so sure?

Well, of the 46 I’ve personally documented, I know for a fact that two of them had never entered the market before they were sold. Moreover, I know an additional one of them still belongs in the family of the original owner.

This gives me confidence that we haven’t seen all of them just yet, and that there are still exampels out there that have never left the original family’s ownership.

Of course, whether I’ll ever document all 200 of those thought to survive – or even get close to this – is another question.

But the quest to record as many as possible, and prove their existence continues unabated.

It goes without question, that if you know of any other copies that I’ve missed, do let me know so I can update my records.

Until then, I’m confident there ‘are’ still examples out there, that are waiting to be cleared out, and rediscovered…!

UPDATE!

Since publishing this blog, the owners of two more hitherto unrecorded signed OHMSS books have come forward to share their number with me. These privately-owned books are numbers 151 and 230 - bringing the known number up to 65.