Pan Books binding query.

Rob007

Hi everyone!

I have a question for fellow James Bond Pan Books nerds!

Most books that I've come across seem to be glued directly onto the card cover but a few in my collection have an additional paper and/or fine mesh strip which (I assume) holds the pages together before being attached to the cover.

I initially thought the books had been repaired and they wouldn't have had this origianlly but now I'm starting to have second thoughts.

Could any fellow collectors shed any light on this? Do your copies also have these additional strips?

I've posted some examples below.

Casio Royale - 1955 (1st printing):



Diamonds are Forever - 1958 (1st printing):



Dr. No - 1960 (1st printing):



Thanks in advance,
Rob

Silhouette Man

Well I'm no book expert (though I do have a lot of them and collect them) but I'd say that you are spot on here, Rob007. I'd agree that this is a web holding the loose pages together by glue until the paperback cover is attached to it. Perhaps such webbing is an older practice as I don't have any of those early Pan paperback editions of the Bond novels pictured and the later ones I do have do not have this webbing. Admittedly I have seen that webbing on other books, though. Hope that helps.

alantong

Hi,

The early copies do seem to have the paper / mesh strip so do not worry, they have not been messed around with / repaired. I have seen this on CR and MR and probably a few others.

BTW If anyone has a 6th edition of Casino Royale Pan then can you check the list of editions / dates. There seems to be 2 different versions of this printing - the most obvious difference is that the date of the 5th printing is 1959 on one printing and 1960 on the other.

I suspect Pan made a mistake and never printed a "5th edition" and one of the 6ths is in fact the 5th printing. I have never come across a 5th.

Regards
Alan

Rob007

Hi Alan,

Thanks for your response.

I don't have a 5th printing and only one 6th printing with the following listing:

First published 1953 by Jonathan Cape Ltd.
This edition published 1955 by Pan Books Ltd.,
8 Headfort Place, London, S.W.1

2nd Printing 1955
3rd Printing (re-set) 1958
4th Printing 1959
5th Printing 1960
6th Printing 1960

(This has the grey painted cover by Peff).

Thanks,
Rob

alantong

Rob007 wrote:

Hi Alan,

Thanks for your response.

I don't have a 5th printing and only one 6th printing with the following listing:

First published 1953 by Jonathan Cape Ltd.
This edition published 1955 by Pan Books Ltd.,
8 Headfort Place, London, S.W.1

2nd Printing 1955
3rd Printing (re-set) 1958
4th Printing 1959
5th Printing 1960
6th Printing 1960

(This has the grey painted cover by Peff).

Thanks,
Rob

Thanks for that - I think your "6th" is actually a 5th. If its the same as mine then the list of previous titles does not include The Diamond Hunters? The "true" 6th lists the 5th printing as 1959 and does include the Diamond Hunters.

It seems as if whoever was in charge of recording printings / dates was taking full advantage of the 60s culture as there are many mistakes! It makes it difficult to collect these books.

Rob007

You're right. The Diamond Hunters isn't included on the "By the Same Autor in PAN Books" page.

I haven't collected as many editions as you Alan, so I hadn't noticed this. I've still got quite a few more to go!

CoolHandBond

I had many requests for the 5th printing of CR by Pan Books but in 40 years of bookselling I never came across one. My personal thoughts are that it never existed and Pan made an error in the printing history.

alantong

CoolHandBond wrote:

I had many requests for the 5th printing of CR by Pan Books but in 40 years of bookselling I never came across one. My personal thoughts are that it never existed and Pan made an error in the printing history.

Agree - more details on this here
http://www.collecting-fleming.com/photos/more-info/pan-painted-series-casino-royale-3rd

I dont think any of the following Pan printings exist but would love to be proved wrong:

CR 5th,11th,14th 32nd
LALD 26th
DAF 22nd
FRWL 18th

CoolHandBond

alantong wrote:

CoolHandBond wrote:

I had many requests for the 5th printing of CR by Pan Books but in 40 years of bookselling I never came across one. My personal thoughts are that it never existed and Pan made an error in the printing history.

Agree - more details on this here
http://www.collecting-fleming.com/photos/more-info/pan-painted-series-casino-royale-3rd

I dont think any of the following Pan printings exist but would love to be proved wrong:

CR 5th,11th,14th 32nd
LALD 26th
DAF 22nd
FRWL 18th

That link is really interesting, thank you. In pre-internet days detailed information was very hard to come by and publishers were not very responsive to enquiries - they hated secondhand bookshops as they only got paid once for the new book when published as we dealers would sell and resell used books at sometimes highly inflated prices . I ran a very sophisticated card index filing system (at least I thought it was ) ) for wanted books by my loyal collecters and I am sure that most of the above would have been on there but my memory doesn't stretch that far but the CR 5th edition was the Holy Grail for many as it was the first James Bond paperback that no one ever had.

Rob007

Hi everyone,

Another question for all the book collectors out there!

I have a couple of Pan paperbacks with loose pages and/or a detached cover due to the original glue deteriorating with age. One of these is a second printing of Casino Royale which is fairly scarce.

I was curious to hear other collectors views on repairing books. Has anyone tried it before or would you advise against it? Is it considered dishonest in the collecting world and would it have a negative impact on the value of the book?

I've seen a few videos on YouTube on the subject, and although some of these suggest liberal use of packaging tape (hint: don't use packaging tape to repair your books), others involve the careful application of archive quality glue and seem to make a nice job of it.

Any comments greatly appreciated,
Rob

CoolHandBond

Hi Rob, restoration would be easily seen and it would only be considered dishonest if anyone tried to sell a restored book without mentioning it. Personally, I like to see a used book, wondering who has owned it before, sometimes a name and even an address is written inside - one can wonder if they or family still live there. Most collectors in my experience prefer unrestored books. Ultimately it falls on the owner and what he or she wants. Children's annuals (Beano, Dandy etc.) are probably restored more often than any other book. If an annual in good condition is restored to fine condition it will sell at a price far less than an unrestored fine condition annual.