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THURSDAY MARCH 29 2007 2:00 PM

James Bond Packs Heat, .357 Magnum Sets Auction Record

Edited by erin_broadley

The legendary Colt Python .357 Magnum once owned by James Bond author Ian Fleming sold for £12,000, breaking records at Bonhams' Fine Modern Sporting Guns and Vintage Firearms auction on March 28.

The gun was given to Fleming in 1964 by the Colt Company and was one of the prestige items on show at Bonhams' vintage firearms sale in Knightsbridge.

An anonymous buyer snapped up the gun, which Fleming had until his death after being sent it by a senior Colt executive, who was said to be so impressed by the author's work he wanted to get in touch.

The Colt is one of the weapons famously seen in The Man with the Golden Gun, with KGB villain Scaramanga wielding the firearm.

According to a Bonhams press release,

The revolver is accompanied with a letter of authentication. Patrick Hawes, Head of Sporting Guns at Bonhams says:The .357 Magnum is one of the hardest hitting handgun calibres around.
[...]
The left side of the revolvers action frame is engraved, 'PRESENTED TO IAN FLEMING BY COLT'S PATENT FIRE ARMS MFG. CO.', The snub-nosed revolver has a short 21⁄2in. barrel, with the bore in excellent condition.

Over the years Ian Fleming took some criticism for leaving Bond exposed and under-gunned with the Italian Beretta .25. In "Doctor No" Bond abandoned his Beretta as he was ordered to begin carrying a Walther PPK 7.65mm as his standard issue firearm. So around the time that Fleming was writing The Man with the Golden Gun, Colt presented the .357 Magnum to him.

The reason that Fleming never armed James Bond with the powerful, heavy, bulky Colt may be that it would have spoiled the line of 007s immaculate dinner jacket, while the PPK being a smaller and lighter weapon was easier to conceal.

Comments

NinjaTech

Minneapolis, MN

November 2003

MAR 29, 2007 03:16 PM

Spats

North Hollywood, CA

September 2006

MAR 29, 2007 03:18 PM

Attention Freudians: Bond's Gun

"[Bond's] eyes slid to the gun and holster on the desk. He remembered the times its single word had saved his life -- and the times when its threat alone had been enough. He thought of the days when he had literally dressed to kill -- when he had dismantled the gun and oiled it and packed the bullets carefully into the springloaded magazine and tried the action once or twice, pumping the cartridges out on to the beadspread in some hotel bedroom somewhere round the world. Then the last wipe of a dry rag and the gun into the little holster and a pause in front of the mirror to see that nothing showed. And then out the door and on his way to the rendezvous that was to end with either darkness or light." (Ian Fleming, DR. NO)

spencer_dodds

United Kingdom

March 2007

MAR 30, 2007 01:52 AM

Daniel Craig not only carries a magnum, but the expression on his face is the magnum (created by derek zoolander).

mingol

Singapore

July 2005

MAR 30, 2007 03:08 AM

The Colt is one of the weapons famously seen in The Man with the Golden Gun, with KGB villain Scaramanga wielding the firearm.

Okay, trivia quibble: when in the movie did that happen? As best I can recall, Scaramanga is only shown using his golden gun. In the book his weapon is a Colt, but a .45 automatic, not a Python revolver:

(from the link)
In presenting Fleming with this gift Colt may well have been thanking him for referring to a Colt .45 Peacemaker in `The Man with the Golden Gun' used by Scaramanga, the KGB villain who was previously a circus trick-shot artist.

I do recall Bond using a Colt Python at the end of Live And Let Die, but I'm pretty sure the article's wrong about it appearing in The Man with the Golden Gun.

SeannyBoy

Toronto, ON

July 2006

MAR 30, 2007 06:34 AM

I do believe they're referring to the original novel and not the movie version.

Big_Slikk

Anchorage, AK

April 2005

MAR 30, 2007 12:05 PM

NinjaTech said:

De Plane Boss, De Plane

goodpoltergeist

Douglasville, GA

January 2007

MAR 30, 2007 01:04 PM

mingol said:

The Colt is one of the weapons famously seen in The Man with the Golden Gun, with KGB villain Scaramanga wielding the firearm.

I do recall Bond using a Colt Python at the end of Live And Let Die, but I'm pretty sure the article's wrong about it appearing in The Man with the Golden Gun.

Ok, I saw this and remembered the scene where James Bond arrives on Scaramanga's island. Nick Nack offers James a bottle of champagne which Scaramanga shoots the cork out of. The gun he uses is not the Golden Gun.

from Wikipedia (I know, I know...but it's a start)

When Bond appears on Scaramanga's island, Scaramanga doesn't use his deluxe golden gun%u2014made from a cigarette case, lighter, and other components%u2014to shoot the cork off the bottle of Dom Perignon champagne. Instead, he employs a gold-plated Colt .45. This could be a nod to the weapon that Scaramanga uses in the original novel, or a reference to the golden gun brandished by Auric Goldfinger during the climax of Goldfinger. It may even be the same prop.