Not the Property of a Lady but...John Griswold's Ian Fleming / James Bond Collection Auction Sale

A one in a lifetime event : courtesy of a friend of the Ian Fleming Foundation, I've been forwarded the catalog of the future John Griwold's Ian Fleming - James Bond collection Auction , due to take place on October the 4th.

Prepare to be salivating like an enraged dog : Mr Griswold's Bond material collection is indeed astronomical ...

From an original Jonathan Cape Ian Fleming Casino Royale first printing edition ( priced between $ 10.000 / 30.000 ) to unknown Robert McGinnis Diamonds Are Forever film teaser posters , not forgetting rare promo material , a complete Queen Ann Press Ian Fleming novels limited edition set , a gold painted plaster bust of Ian Fleming or a unique hand painted porcelaine figure of Shirley Eaton , a 14k gold S.P.E.C.T.R.E ring , etc. , etc. that auction will certainly be remembered as one of the best 007 orientated style one ever .

A long life James Bond enthusiast since the early 1960s , Mr Griswold is best known as the author of the definitive Fleming 's work study , the unique " Ian Fleming's James Bond : Annotations & Chronologies for Ian Fleming Bond stories " , published in 2005 .

Direct link to catalogue of items :

www.artfact.com/catalog/searchLots.cfm?scp=c&catalogRef=PBJD2AI7NJ

Go ahead, Blofeld : Make my day !

It was more or less known amongst film fans & movie historians that Clint Eastwood has been aproached to replace Sean Connery as James Bond in the 1970s ( Cubby Broccoli recalled the event in his memoirs ' When the Snow melts ' ) .

Director Guy Hamilton confirmed me on a couple of times that United Artists wanted a big US name to carry on the franchise .

They were even considering Burt Reynolds ( fresh from John Boorman's Deliverance ) to step into the British spy's shoes ...

At the times , Clint Eastwood was best known for his parts in the Sergio Leone so called Spaguetti Westerns ( where he played some sort of recurrent character , promptly nicknamed ' the man with no name ' by Critics & audience alike ) .

" I was offered pretty good money to do Bond , confirmed today the acclaimed actor turned director , this was after Connery left . My lawyer represented the Broccolis and he came and said ' they would love to have you ' . But to me , well, that was somebody's else's gig . That was Sean's deal . It didn't feel right for me to do it . I always like characters that are more grounded in reality . Maybe they do super things or more-than-human things - like Dirty Harry he has a knack for doing crazy things - but still they're not caped crusaders ...

Although it could be considered as pure heresy to have an American actor impersonnating Ian Fleming's creation, I for one think that some of the Dirty Harry's best lines & quips would have perfectly worked in a more serious Bond context approach ( à la Daniel Craig ) ...But not , I repeat NOT , for the tongue-in-cheek approach chosen by the film producers for the 7th entry of the Eon series , the comedy-enhanced Diamonds Are Forever ...

Many thanks to Tony Crawley for sending me the original info .