Derbyshire collector’s rare replica of James Bond villain's iconic golden gun set to fetch thousands at auction

The 18ct gold-plated limited edition collectors’ piece is an exact recreation of the famous weapon from the 1974 movie starring Roger Moore as 007.

The Man With The Golden Gun also featured Christopher Lee as the titular assassin and he remains one of the most famous Bond villains in the history of the films.

Now, 007 fans are being given the chance to pose as the spy's mortal enemy when the non-firing replica goes under the hammer later this month. The 9.5ins reproduction also has the rare distinction of being #001 of just 1,000 ever released worldwide by Factory Entertainment in 2010.Like Scaramanga's gun in the film it is assembled from a dummy lighter, with dummy pen as the barrel, a cigarette case for the grip with a dummy cufflink trigger. It also includes a single ‘golden bullet’ engraved ‘007’ - just like the one sent to Bond in the film.

The gun will be sold by Richard Winterton Auctioneers in Lichfield, Staffs., on October 23, with a guide price of between £1,500 to £2,000.

Owner Tony Swift, 67, from Derbyshire, a collector of film props and movie memorabilia, bought the piece from new in 2010.

He said: “I’d heard they were being put on the market and saw it online. When it arrived I couldn't believe I had been lucky enough to get number 001.

“I did originally have it on display in its Perspex case in another cabinet – it's never been out in the open or repeatedly assembled and disassembled. But for the past seven years it's been sitting boxed up in a wardrobe, which seems a shame.”

Tony, who worked as a news photographer for 25 years, says although he is a Roger Moore fan, he prefers the grittier 007 films of the Daniel Craig era.

He added: “Craig or Connery are probably my favourite 007 actors but when it comes to vintage Bond movies I do have a soft spot for The Man With The Golden Gun.

“Christopher Lee was brilliant as Francisco Scaramanga and to this day remains regarded as one of the best Bond villains of all time, a genuine match for 007. He had some superb lines and of course he also possessed arguably the most iconic weapon in the entire series.”

In the original Ian Fleming book – his last James Bond novel, published posthumously in 1965 – Scaramanga used a gold-plated Colt .45 revolver.

But for the movie, filmmakers felt a weapon constructed from seemingly innocuous components carried by a wealthy 1970s man would be more visually striking. It also helped create the famous ‘single shot’ plot device underlining Scaramanga’s deadly skill.

Three different golden gun props feature in the film – firstly, the ‘Gimmick Gun’, which could be assembled and disassembled for close-up scenes.

Then there was a solid one-piece gun which did not break down into components and so proved more practical for action scenes and general filming. The third was rigged to fire small explosive squibs to give the appearance of a working firearm.

Painstakingly created by measuring the surviving originals in the EON props archive and hand-finished, the facsimile is a highly accurate reproduction of the gun.

Auctioneer Richard Winterton said: “The replica is a stunning recreation of one of the series’ most iconic weapons, which continues to be part of the wider Bond-iverse thanks to its inclusion in 007 video games.

“It would form the golden centrepiece to any collection of film memorabilia but is an especially impressive item for the serious James Bond enthusiast.”