Golf, Goldfinger and an early 007 classic sell at Swann New York

Ian Fleming firsts in a Swann of New York sale of May 14 will include a copy of Goldfinger of 1959 inscribed to a famous golfer, Henry Cotton, estimated at $12,000-18,000 (£9250- 13,850).

Extracted from Antiques Trade Gazette | Ian McKay

This 1959 copy ‘Goldfinger’ inscribed to a famous golfer, Henry Cotton, is estimated at $12,000- 18,000 in Swann’s May 14 auction.

This was the book in which Fleming, himself a dedicated golfer and long-term friend of Cotton, included what was to become perhaps cinema’s most famous golfing scene and his inscription reads: “To Henry Cotton Who may be amused by pp. 92-131! / from Ian Fleming.”

Estimated at $8000-12,000 is a 1961, presentation first of Thunderball inscribed by Fleming to Charles Douglas Jackson.

After a stint with Time magazine, Jackson had joined the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) in 1943 and became deputy chief at the Psychological Warfare Division at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) in London.

It was presumably around this time that he met Fleming, then working in Naval Intelligence, and the two became friends. Jackson worked for Life in post-war years but following his death in 1964 he was revealed to have also been a CIA agent.