Goldfinger. London: Jonathan Cape,1959. Frist Edition. Black cloth boards with golden coin eyes and Skull blind stamped to upper cover, in publisher’s pictorial dust jacket, designed by Richard Chopping. Light shelf-wear to jacket, with tape repair to lower portion of the spine, light rubbing to cloth, neat ownership name to endpaper, otherwise a nice bright copy.

The binding of Goldfinger is unusual within the first edition Bond series. Jonathan Cape produced it with a striking design feature: a skull blind-stamped into the front board, with two metallic gold paper “coins” affixed to the eye sockets. This design was a direct reference to the novel’s central plot device—the gold-hoarding Auric Goldfinger and his obsession with the corporeal weight of precious metal.

The seventh book in the James Bond series & the last Bond novel to be published before the release of the first film, Dr. No (1962), which would transform Fleming from a successful thriller writer into a global cultural phenomenon.