Archive for the dust jacket of For Your Eyes Only.

14 October 1959 - 14 April 1960. The iconic Bond jacket takes form A series of 22 autograph and typed letters signed between Ian Fleming, his agent at Jonathan Cape Michael Howard, and Fleming's dust-jacket artist of choice Richard Chopping, documenting the conception and creation of Chopping's jacket design for For Your Eyes Only, also containing a number of drafts and colour palettes for the dust jacket, as well as a final sketch. Fleming was introduced to Chopping, then a young artist specializing in trompe-l'oeil paintings, by his wife Ann in 1956. Chopping designed almost all the James Bond jackets from Russia With Love onwards; he afterwards also designed the covers of the Amis and Gardner continuations. Fleming was a great supporter of Chopping's work, his enthusiasm overriding the concern of his editor at Cape over Chopping's escalating fees for the artwork - in this collection, the letters demonstrate Fleming's effusive support for Chopping's design, Howard's tactful rebuttal that the sum was too high, and Chopping's cordial yet insistent demands for his desired fees. The matter was resolved, Chopping's designs were used here and on the other novels, and the designs have become an iconic component of the Bond cultural phenomenon. This collection aptly details the production of and dispute over one of the most arresting examples, the eye-through-the-keyhole so familiar to Bond collectors. A collection of correspondence and draft artwork, housed in a custom-made blue cloth folder in a blue cloth chemise with blue morocco-backed slipcase. i. Correspondence, comprising: Ian Fleming, 4 typed letters signed, three to Chopping and one to the publisher on Chopping's design and his fee, Kemsley House stationery, 14 October 1959 to 12 April 1960; Una Trueblood, Fleming's secretary, typed letter signed, Kemsley House stationery, 16 October 1959; Michael Howard, Fleming's editor at Cape, 6 typed letters signed, Jonathan Cape stationery, 4 November 1959 to 14 April 1960; Jennifer Armour, typed letter signed, Jonathan Cape stationery,19 November 1959; Richard Chopping, 6 retained draft letters (chiefly autograph but one typed) to Fleming and Howard, two written on the versos of incoming letters, [October 1959-April 1960]. ii. Draft artwork, comprising: several typescript copies of the text for use on the jacket, some with preparatory sketches including early versions of the "For Your Eyes Only" stamp, "Notes on Colours for Eye" with notes and swatches of watercolour, similar swatches for brass label and background colours, preliminary watercolour sketch of the background with spyhole; 20 leaves of tracing paper (various sizes) with pencil draft designs, three draft watercolour drawings of eyes, and a watercolour drawing of an eye looking through spyhole. One or two items marked, creased, or rubbed at the extremities, but all in all an archive-quality set.