James Bond's Gun Sells for $437,000

Dmitri Mishkin · December 2010

"Back in November we broke the news that a Walther pistol wielded by Sean Connery as James Bond in the photo shoot used for the main image in the poster and advertising campaign for 1963's From Russia With Love (above) was being auctioned off at Christie's' Popular Culture: Film and Entertainment sale in London. Now the results of Nov. 25 sale are in, and the weapon – in actual fact an air gun – has sold for an astonishing $437,000, almost 14 times it's high pre-sale estimate of $32,000. The iconic image of Connery holding the gun was later used in advertising and promotional material for every Bond film up until 1967's You Only Live Twice and remains a major pop culture paragon."

http://www.luxist.com/2010/12/01/james-bonds-gun-sells-for-437-000/

texas007 · December 2010

see original thread here
http://www.ajb007.co.uk/topic/35741/original-connery-walther-lp-mod53-air-pistol-serial-no-054159-at/

toutbrun · December 2010

Not to mention that he doesn't use it very much (if not only on the poster).

thesecretagent · December 2010

Dmitri Mishkin wrote:

"Back in November we broke the news that a Walther pistol wielded by Sean Connery as James Bond in the photo shoot used for the main image in the poster and advertising campaign for 1963's From Russia With Love (above) was being auctioned off at Christie's' Popular Culture: Film and Entertainment sale in London. Now the results of Nov. 25 sale are in, and the weapon – in actual fact an air gun – has sold for an astonishing $437,000, almost 14 times it's high pre-sale estimate of $32,000. The iconic image of Connery holding the gun was later used in advertising and promotional material for every Bond film up until 1967's You Only Live Twice and remains a major pop culture paragon."

http://www.luxist.com/2010/12/01/james-bonds-gun-sells-for-437-000/

Even as a young child I knew it was an air-gun, because I had one very similar, and you can see where the barrel breaks for cocking and loading. But does anyone know why they chose an airgun to premote the first Bond film?

minigeff · December 2010

yeah, they forgot to take the ppk to the shoot. the lp53 belonged to the snapper. the plan was to airbrush out the lp's long barrel, that was forgotten about too, the rest is history.

thesecretagent · December 2010

Good job they remembered the tux...

PPK 7.65mm · December 2010

Is this the same gun that was owned by David Hern (He was the photographer whom loaned Connery his Walther LP air gun when the Walther PPK did not turn upon for the photographs he was taking for promotions for the film) ?

James Bond's Gun Sells for $437,000

Comments