The elusive Sangorski & Sutcliffe rebinds - can we finally say a full set 'must' exist?

Six Sangorski & Sutcliffe first edition rebinds appeared on the second-hand market last week - joining the only two others I've ever seen. So can we be confident a full set actually exists?

If you’ve been reading my blogs over the last few months, you’ll have probably noticed that I’ve been covering off some of the lesser-known collectible James Bond sets – everything from the Penguin/Viking (limited to 1,000) set in the early 2000s, to the First Edition Library (FEL) set, and more recently the Easton Press’s luxury full-leather binding set, also from the early 2000s.

In many ways all these sets were the original forebears to the more familiar Penguin 2008 Centenary edition (limited to only 4,000 complete sets), the more recent Ian Fleming Publications hardback set and, of course, not forgetting the luxury Queen Anne Press sets produced by Ian Fleming’s nephew, Fergus Fleming.

Common to all these sets though is the fact all these books are ‘brand new’ representations of the classic Bond books. The FELs got closest to exactly mimicking the Cape hardbacks, as did the Easton Press luxury set, which also used the same textual plates – but they are all essentially 'new' books.

What about rebinds?

What none of these sets really showcase is the long and very well-established tradition in book production – rebinding: that is taking original published works and covering them with new outers – typically in high quality leather, with intricate designs.

This tradition dates almost as far back as book production itself, when books (usually Bibles) were rebound in new casings to keep them preserved (or in some cases disguised – especially during the Reformation).

While some regard rebinding books as abject vandalism, the fact it used to be done, the fact it continues to be done, and the fact that in more recent years they're specifically produced for collectors, means rebinds occupy a whole new sub-genre of collecting.

Today rebound first editions are highly sought after in their own right. Just take a look at these two full-Morocco first edition rebinds of George Orwell’s classic, 1984.

The book on the right us up for sale for a cool £4,500, while the one on the left is £6,000 - both from Bayliss Rare Books:

Nineteen Eighty Four seems to be a particularly popular title for rebinding, with other limited edition examples also on the market. Notable is this version, currently on sale for $6,000:

This particular version (left), is also a rebind of a genuine 1949 Secker & Warburg first impression – and it was made by Exeter Bookbinders, in a limited edition binding of just 100.

Each one features a striking glass eye onlay with three titanium skull-shaped buttons to the front panel, pictorial endpapers showing a collage of eyes and two flaps to the front pastedown that open to reveal small portraits from banknotes of Queen Elizabeth II and George Washington.

Apologies to those of a delicate disposition, but the bindery has also done the same for the 1930 first impression of Moby Dick – also rebinding 100 of them.

Purists might argue that the above merely represents the ruining of 100 very small print run first impressions to begin with - books that should have been kept in their original condition.

But Peter Harrington Rare Books, for one, would probably disagree.

It runs the Chelsea Bindery.

Since 2000 it has produced what Harrington's calls ‘individual works of art’ – books that are rebinds of the likes of first editions of Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s (£2,750) - see picture left.

It other rebound books include those by A. A. Milne, Lewis Carroll, Frank L. Baum, and J. D. Salinger.

Sangorski & Sutcliffe - and James Bond...

While the Chelsea and Exeter bindery are both reasonably well-known, perhaps the most familiar name in bookbinding is Sangorski & Sutcliffe – a firm still going strong today. It was originally founded in 1901 by bookbinder apprentices, brothers Frances Sangorski and George Sutcliffe.

Celebrated for reviving the lost medieval art for jeweled bindings, the Sangorski & Sutcliffe name became famous the world-over in only a few short years.

Its most famous/infamous work was ‘The Great Omar’ - a copy of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, commissioned by John Stonehouse, manager of Sotheran's bookshop (also still in business today). Completed in 1911 after taking more than two years to make, the final book measured 40cm x 35 cm, used 100sq ft of gold leaf and comprised of 5,000 different pieces of leather. it was adorned with the images of three golden peacocks and their tails and gilded vines were decorated with more than 1,050 jewels. It was described by the press at the time as the "the most remarkable specimen of binding ever produced." Below is a colourised picture of it (only black and white pictures exist).

But it is infamous for never reaching its eventual buyer - New York dealer called Gabriel Wells.

It was due to be transported by ship from the UK. It missed being sent on a crossing leaving on 6^th April 1911. So instead was packed on-board the next available boat – the RMS Titanic!

Where James Bond comes in:

There’s a reason I’m waffling on about rebinds and Sangorski & Sutcliffe!!

For what the FELs and the Easton Press editions failed to do with the James Bond titles (ie rebind original first editions), this master bindery did actually do.

And, very, very (and I mean ‘very’), occasionally they crop up for sale.

One such occurrence was last week.

After not seeing any for some while, a staggering six of them were being offered on eBay – all from the same private seller - all at once. Presumably got as a job lot from somewhere.

For sale were: Goldfinger; For Your Eyes Only: The Man With The Golden Gun; The Spy Who Loved Me, Thunderball and You Only Live Twice.

I noticed them a few days ago, and went to study them again, unsurprisingly perhaps, all of the books, each bound in beautiful full-leather, with gilt edging, and spectacular marbled endpapers, had sold.

For those of you that didn't see them, here are the pics from the listings...

For Your Eyes Only:

Goldfinger:

The rest:

You Only Live Twice (below left) and Thunderball (below, right).

The Spy Who Loved Me (below left) and The Man With The Golden Gun (below right):

I think you will agree, these look stunning.

I messaged the seller to ask if they had any more - but alas, these were the only ones.

But if you thought the FELs and luxury Easton Press books were hard to find much information about, these books take ‘not-much-information-being-out-there’ to another level.

These books barely register as existing on any search. All we can say for certain is that Sangorski & Sutcliffe created books for Asprey – the jewelry and luxury goods retailer in Bond Street.

We don't know anything about print numbers, and we’re not even sure 'when' they were even made.

One book dealer I've spoken to in the past has said that these rebinds were made to be sold in Asprey's own shop, but that they might also have been available in Harrods or Liberty’s (or both). It's possible these rebinds were made in either the middle-to-late 1980s or early 1990s.

I suspect that because, date-wise, Asprey actually bought Sangorski & Sutcliffe in 1985 (some sources say 1988), and further research tells me that SSK (as it was then re-named to), was later bought by bookbinding company, Shepherds, in 1998, who revived the longer Sangorski & Sutcliffe name once more.

It’s equally possible, however, that the sets were made by Sangorski Sutcliffe 'before' Asprey’s initial acquisition of it in the mid 1980s.

What I do definitely know is that I’ve only ever seen two other similarly-bound Asprey Bond books in the flesh – one was a copy of From Russia With Love and one was a copy of Live and Let Die - and these were nearly two years ago now.

At the time, both were being sold by Jonkers, and I handled them at the Oxford Book Fair in 2024. I didn't buy them at the time. wish I had - but they were quite pricey. In fact Live and Let Die sold more or less straight away after the fair, whilst From Russia With Love is still available.

See pics below of Live and Let Die:

But is there anything more we can deduce about these intriguing books?

A bit of detective work suggests that (maybe), not all of the examples I've shown you here were made at exactly the same time - indicating that there might have been a couple of different versions of these sets (or that sets were made to order, and varied slightly because of this).

Below, for instance, we see that despite having lots of similarities, there are differences between the spines on some of the eBay copies.

Below I've blown them up so you can see what differences I'm referring to.

For instance, there is different sized text on some of the spines - see below the comparison between Goldfinger and The Spy Who Loved Me.

The text size variations are perhaps excusable for the word 'Goldfinger' - as it's longer, and can't easily be split - but not for 'Ian Fleming').

You'll notice too that For Your Eyes Only has an 'eye' motif on the spine, and there is no such equivalent on the copy of Goldfinger (where you would assume a 'skull' might be).

Also, on For Your Your Eyes Only we see the traditional date at the foot of the spine. Goldfinger does not have this, and nor did Live and Let Die (above) and nor does the From Russia With Love being sold by Jonkers.

Even books that look very similar have slight differences.

Below we see The Man With The Golden Gun and The Spy Who Loved Me. While the book titles are uniform between books, the 'Ian Fleming' lettering is very clearly differently sized:

There's some other differences too:

See Thunderball below:

From the listing photographs - it appears that the leather for this book is more a dark purple in hue than the jet black of the other listings. I'm not sure if this is evidence of there being more than a few runs of this set or not. But I would certainly suggest that this title was maybe not made at the same time as the black leather ones, and maybe a different colour had to be used that didn't quite match,

The $64,000 question: Does a full set of these Asprey books exist?

The big, big question the appearance of these six books asks is whether or not they must be indicative of more being out there - maybe the remaining titles that complete a set.

Here's my take: Given that we definitely know that eight different titles now exist with Asprey bindings (two from Jonkers, six from eBay), I would say we 'have' to assume that out there – somewhere!! – the remaining titles must exist - books that would indeed complete the whole set.

Wouldn't it be amazing to find a Casino Royale bound by Asprey??

What I can also say is that apart from the Jonkers copies, the eBay-sold copies are the 'only' other Sangorski & Sutcliffe rebinds I’ve ever seen.

Given I’ve only ever seen these eight come up for sale in the decade or more since I’ve been buying and selling Ian Fleming first editions, I think one can easily come to the conclusion that these particular rebound books are ultra rare, and likely to have been produced in only very tiny numbers. Single digits of each book? Who knows...

So, I would say that if you learn to recognise what these books look like, and keep your eyes open for any more of them - particularly if it's a Fleming title you like - I would say that investing in one of them is probably a very good buy. These books almost feel like one-offs.

Whether or not a full set of all 14 books has ever existed is hard to say.

The fact that eight different definitely exist gives me hope that at least one complete set 'was' indeed made for at least one discerning customer.

Of course, whether we ever see a complete set come to light, or another substantial number of these books being offered for sale at the same time, is anyone's guess.

Sadly, I doubt it. Not unless an entire full set is still somewhere out there, waiting to be rediscovered,

But, the fact the odd title has appeared gives me hope we might - in time - potentially see more.

If one does surface, it might well be worth trying to own, because I would argue you might genuinely never see another one again.

A final thought:

Shepherds – user of the Sangorski & Sutcliffe name – is still making interesting Ian Fleming rebinds to this day.

Below is its latest design for Goldfinger - bound in orange goatskin with a black leather onlay:

It’s also worth noting, the Shepherds were also behind the very beautiful Queen Anne Press editions of the complete works of Ian Fleming – limited to just 56 sets, and long sold out. Not rebinds, of course, but new books beautifully bound.

I've long dreamed of seeing the below QAP set below in the flesh, but now I also dream of someday seeing a full set of Sangorski & Sutcliffe rebinds too...