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Golden gun (courtesy bonhams.com)

Sir Christopher Lee died Sunday morning at ripe old age of 93. Lee was famous for the title role in Count Dracula, Saruman in The Lord of the Rings and assassin Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun. The eponymous gold gun was fashioned from a cigarette case, a lighter, a fountain pen and cuff links. Scaramanga assembled the parts into a 4.2mm caliber firearm, firing a gold bullet with unerring accuracy. As our web friends would say, because guns. A non-working limited edition (199/7500) pencil-packing silver variant of the SD Studios replica – signed by Roger Moore – is up for action at Bonhams. It’s expected to fetch . . .

Five to eight thousand dollars. Lot details as follows:

Inspired by James Bond’s firearm of choice, the classic Walther PPK. This set was originally produced in two versions, silver finish and matte PVD finish, and offered in two editions: as a set of four instruments and as a set of seven. The set of seven is preferred by collectors and consists of fountain pen, ballpoint, three lighters, two cufflinks and a keychain. The consignor, an esteemed client of Dupont’s, requested a specially-made set substituting a propelling pencil in place of the keychain. Dupont complied, resulting in this unique set.

All pieces are silver-finished, and the writing instruments and lighters are decorated with stainless steel bullet devices with a time zone function. Set comprises fountain pen, ballpoint, propelling pencil, Jeroboam lighter, Ligne 2 lighter, Gatsby lighter, and bullet cufflinks. Medium 18K rhodium-plated gold nib, has been inked. Display box. Limited Edition: each item has a different limitation number (not a matching set). Included with the lot is a brief statement from the consignor noting the set’s pedigree.

Worth it?

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40 COMMENTS

    • I agree. I refuse to buy non-functional weapons of any type, whether it’s guns or swords/medieval weapons. You won’t find a stainless wallhanger sword, mace, war-hammer or pole-arm in my house – they’re all lethally functional, properly balanced, and honestly “battle ready” (bring on the zombies – who needs ammo? 😀 ), nor will you find a Denix cast zinc nongun. To me, it’s like owning a full-sized, correct in every detail, but utterly incapable of ever being driven, replica of a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost. What’s the point? It would be utterly useless except as a rather expensive decoration. Heck, even my medieval weapons could be used to good effect for defense in a pinch (though obviously a “riot-length” shotgun would be my first choice for home defense…). This James Bond replica wouldn’t even make a good club!

      • Amen. I bought a Swiss sawback bayonet to go with the K-31. Tested it out removing tree branches killed off by ice storms. It just feels icky to own stuff that doesn’t work. Everything I buy has to earn its keep, or be capable of doing so.

  1. While I don’t see the point of prop guns or demilled guns, when I could just as well have the real thing, in this case it is about an iconic movie prop…..that just happens to be a gun.
    While I can’t justify the expense at this time, I actually find it quite reasonable if it sells in that range.

  2. It’s a “non-working limited edition (199/7500).” In other words, these are non-functional replicas, not original movie props from one of the worst Bond movie ever made. Value, maybe $250. And they expect $5-8K?

    Hahahahahahahahahahahah!

    It’s true — there’s a sucker born every minute.

  3. Here’s the interesting irony about Christopher Lee: his cousin, Ian Fleming, based James Bond partly on Lee, a commando with the Special Operations Executive during the war. During the filming of Lord of the Rings, director Peter Jackson reportedly got freaked out when Lee complained to him, “…that’s not at all what it sounds like when you stab a man in the back.” Anyway, what that basically means is that “The Man With the Golden Gun” basically got killed by himself.

  4. Christopher Lee was a truly fine actor. Part of the reason he could play Saruman so well was because he had read the books so many times. I really wish they had not cut the Saruman death scene in the Shire from the theatrical release.

  5. Just read Lee’s wiki-what an incredible life! Don’t laugh too hard Ralph-I’ve seen folks pay crazy $ for crap in my days as an antique dealer…

    • Might end up being the same peeps who bought a 100 pack carton of Winny 22 LR for $95 a couple years back. Just sayin…

  6. It’s a replica of a non-firing gun, yes, but it’s functional as the component bits still. If all the bits were just solid metal, it probably wouldn’t be worth nearly as much. But you can use the pens to write and the lighters to light.

    • And each of the writing instruments alone would be worth a couple hundred even if not limited.
      The S.T. Dupont lighters also carry a heavy cache and if you have to ask about the cig case, you can’t afford it.

  7. It’s been a while since I saw the movie, but wasn’t Scaramanga’s gun in “The Man with the Golden Gun”, I don’t know…golden? Why bother plating it with a precious metal if you’re not even going to use the appropriate one?

  8. Roger Moore, Sean Connery, Daniel Craig, just about every “James Bond” except George Lazenby is virurently anti gun. Of course, they wield them without a bit of safety in their movies, and shoot everything that moves, but in the real world they hate private gun ownership and want the British gun control model in the USA.

    Same with Liam Neeson, who makes one shoot em up after another, then calls gun owners “stupid.”

    Remember this when you make your entertainment and fake gun memorabilia purchases.

  9. @Fred Frendly –

    You’re correct paisan, about the Brits who played Bond, but, in my view are the American actors like Sylvester Stallone who portrayed “shoot ’em up roles”, that are as virulently anti-gun as Schumer, Feinstein or Obama are.

    People wondered how Charlton Heston could play Moses on the one hand, and be pro-2A in real life. Oh, but they had no problem with Gregory Peck, who portrayed Douglas MacArthur and Johnny Ringo in films, and was virulently anti-2A in real life.

    To this day, I don’t know if I should be more surprised to learn that John F. Kennedy was a Life Member of NRA, or that Chuck Schumer has a CONCEALED CARRY PERMIT from NYC.

  10. Hmmm. After taking a closer look, this is NOT one of the golden gun replicas. It’s a commemorative pen and lighter set. Look up “St dupont 007” and you’ll see that they’ve offered some very expensive accessories. There’s one of these sets in used condition on eBay going for almost $7k. By comparison, various editions of the golden gun replicas are going from $500 to $2500 or so.

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