A special Colt Python .357 Magnum revolver presented to Ian Fleming will be going up for auction later this month...

Ian Fleming's Colt At Auction
16th March 2007

A gun made specially for James Bond author Ian Fleming is to go up for auction later this month. The Colt Python .357 Magnum revolver was presented to Fleming by the Colt Company in 1964, the year that Fleming died, and it is thought it was made by a very senior executive at the famous firm who was also a Bond fan - reports LSE.

The gun is described as "highly collectable" and is expected to fetch between £10,000 and £15,000 when it comes up for auction in Bonham's Fine Modern Sporting Guns and Vintage Firearms sale on Wednesday March 28. The Colt is Lot #61 in the auction.

Above: "Top of frame fitted with Elliason adjustable rear-sight, the barrel with ramp foresight, the butt with chequered walnut grips and Colt medallions, the revolver retaining virtually all of its Colt high polish blue finish. 2½in. barrel, London nitro proof. The bore excellent. In the maker's carton with the Colt three bladed flat turn-screw, bore brush and target".

According to reports, Fleming kept the Colt with him until his death the same year. He had owned a number of Colts, and it is thought that the company might have been thanking him for referring to a Colt .45 Peacemaker in "The Man With The Golden Gun", which was used my 'Pistols' Scaramanga.

The left side of the gun bears the engraving: 'Presented to Ian Fleming by Colt's Patent Fire Arms MFG. Co.', and has a two-and-a-half inch barrel, with the bore in "excellent" condition and comes with a letter of authentication Bonhams spokesman Julian Roup said: "Ian Fleming took flak from critics who claimed he left Bond exposed and under-gunned with the Italian Beretta .25. In Doctor No, Bond abandoned the Beretta and took up a Walther PPK 7.65mm as his standard issue firearm. It was around the time that Fleming was writing The Man with the Golden Gun that Colt presented the .357 Magnum to him. But Fleming never armed his famous spy with the heavy Colt, perhaps because it would have spoiled the line of his immaculate dinner jacket, while the PPK was smaller and easier to conceal."

Above: Ian Fleming

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Colt image 2002-2007 Bonhams 1793 Ltd