Signed On Her Majesty's Secret Service: The surviving copies update
- Peter Crush
- 4 hours ago
- 6 min read
In the week where it was revealed Ian Fleming fakes have flooded the market comes better news that three more genuine signed On Her Majesty's Secret Service books have surfaced:
This week, fellow rare book seller, keen YouTuber, and all-round decent bloke, Tom Ayling, put out a video detailing the worrying recent emergence of an eBay bookseller attempting to pass on numerous 'signed' books – some of which were purportedly by Fleming – but all of which were fake.
To anyone who hasn’t watched it, I would recommend them doing so by clicking into the video below:
Tom was investigating this seller as the same time as I and other collectors I know on online forums were also becoming worryingly aware of this mysterious book seller.
It was someone who only ever seemed to have signed books from authors that rarely signed.
Somewhat depressingly, Tom revealed how the seller was buying up books one week, then attempting to resell the same one (with a new, added-on ‘fake’ signature), merely weeks later. Depressingly, the piece ends with him saying how the police are not currently able to do anything about – not least until someone who has actually bought one of these books (rather than looking at the seller from afar), specifically raises a complaint.
The 'only' 100% guaranteed Ian Fleming signature
This recent case serves to remind us all – if it were ever needed – that when it comes to buying signed Fleming books, extreme caution is required, and collectors are almost always best protected if they simply assume the book they’re looking at is more likely to be faked than real.
Apart from very well known and very well documented association and inscribed copies, there is – to my mind – only one type of Fleming book that I believe you can 100% guarantee that the signature you find within it is genuine. These are the specially-produced quarter vellum-bound copies of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
They were produced as a special edition of 250 in 1963 (plus 35 un-numbered presentation copies), alongside the regular trade first edition.
Not only was each book signed in Fleming’s own hand (it was the only officially-signed set he did), but I’ve never seen anyone trying to fake one.
To my mind it would be too hard to reproduce the binding, paper, signature etc…
As such , to me this makes these books the one title Fleming collectors know they can be confident about buying.
Recording the known examples – an update
Those of you who follow my blogs will know that I’m trying to establish the most accurate log of surviving copies from this specially signed set, initially to work out survival rates, but also to service as a database of 100% guaranteed Fleming signatures, so that collectors have something to look at and compare against, whenever a new ‘signed’ book pops up.
(My blog previous blog on surviving numbered sets can be read here, and my previous blog on the surviving presentation copies can be read here.
And it’s with very prescient timing – given all this recent talk of fakes – that in this week of all weeks, I do have some additional news to share.
A further three signed copies previously unknown to me have, in the last seven days, suddenly come to light.
One – a presentation copy – that is due to be sold soon.
One - a numbered copy that is due to be sold at Bonhams next week.
One - a further numbered copy that has come to light from a collector, who contacted me direct. He’d read my previous blogs on survival rates of the signed set (and my quest to find them), and he got in touch because owns a numbered copy that I didn’t have recorded.
Oh, the power of the internet. It's wonderful when it wants to be.
New discoveries are good news
The emergence of three new examples is great news.
First, it means we now know of another three of these books that we can say are definitely in existence.
Secondly, it gives us evidence that there are still – tantalizingly – more still out there waiting to be discovered – or should that be ‘rediscovered’.
Until being able to catalogue them, these are books that might not have had any record of their continued existence until now.
Three less to find
According to Ian Fleming bibliographer, Jon Gilbert, the signed set will likely have suffered a 20% wastage rate – meaning that only 200 of the 250 numbered set are likely to survive to this day.
The same, he suggests, applies to the presentation set – suggesting only 28 exist out of the 35 total today.
The newest presentation copy:
The picture left, complete with its signature below, shows the newest presentation copy that I can categorically add to my database.
NOTE: I only record examples of presentation copies as ‘existing’ where I can see the actual signature of Ian Fleming.
Seeing a picture of the outside of a presentation book isn’t good enough, as we don’t know if that book is the same as one I might already have counted.
Below is the enlarged signature of this newest presentation copy. I know it’s a new one, because the signature differs ever so slightly from all of the previous ones I’ve documented with signatures.
If you want to compare the above signatures yourself, below are the previous known signatures from the other presentation copies that I’ve documented:
This new one brings the total of presentation copies we know about, and which are complete with a picture of the signature to eight. That’s eight out of the total of 35.
So we now know that at least 28% of the total of presentation copies still exist today.
But there could still be others!
The latest numbered copies
Here (left) is a picture of the first of the two newest numbered On Her Majesty's Secret Service signed books that have turned up, (and which were previously unknown to me).
As we can see, this is numbered copy 122.
It is due to be sold at Bonhams next week (26th March 2026), and it carries a guide price of £5,000-£7,000).
No former owner provenance is given, although it does carry an owner's inscription inside, saying 'Christmas 1963' (very apt!)
To go with this, here is a picture of the second newest book unknown to me: number 201 – sent directly to me from the collector who messaged me.
The owner is – I believe – either the first or second owner of the book. The person who contacted me, says his wife bought it many years ago, from a bookshop in London (but he can’t remember which).
The owner doesn’t live in the UK now, but lives abroad.
With the addition of numbers 122 and 201, below is the updated list of all of the known copies that I have proof exist (that is they belong to people I know, or have come up for sale at auction in the last 20 years):
2, 11, 16, 20, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 31, 33, 35, 36, 37, 39, 43, 56, 59,, 62, 63, 65, 74, 80, 92, 96, 98, 105, 106, 109, 114, 115, 117, 118, 121, 122, 124, 125, 128, 123, 143, 146, 148, 151, 156, 162, 170, 172, 183, 186, 187, 191, 201 203, 205, 219, 223, 224, 230 233, 236 and 250.
This brings the number of known numbered copies up to a very respectable 78 out of the plausible 200 that Gilbert argues still exist.
Put another way, of the suspected total that are believed to exist, I have evidence that 39% are ‘known’ to exist (assuming no wastage since these known sold copies has occurred).
This is a pretty respectable total considering there are a combined total of at least five numbered and presentation copies that are unlikely ever to enter the market at all.
This is because we know from Gilbert's bibliography that “numbers” (note the plural) of “numbered copies” are held in the Ian Fleming Bibliographical Archive, while EON also reportedly owns a numbered copy – number 30. Meanwhile ‘numbers’ (also plural) of presentation copies are also held in the Ian Fleming Bibliographical Archive
Assuming that the total of numbered books able to reach the market drops by three to 197, the fact we know 78 of them means we still know 39% are accounted for.
Conclusions
More numbered and presentation books 'are' undoubtedly out there.
When they do turn up, these copies will probably not have any previous documented history.
But this is arguably the ‘only’ category of Fleming book it's acceptable for new ones to appear that haven’t been documented before.
Unlike the ‘faked’ books we’ve recently seen, any new signed book from this set that suddenly surfaces is 100% OK.
Keep searching I say!
(And if any readers out there have a numbered or presentation copy I haven’t recorded, please do let me know, so I can add you to the list).