Can YOU crack the code on Ian Fleming’s cufflinks? James Bond author’s pearl cufflinks inscribed with unsolved secret message are set to fetch up to £1,200 at auction
- Bond author’s enigmatic cufflinks inscribed with ‘WUS’, ‘SIL’, ‘UDH’ and ‘NUF’
- It is the ‘perfect code-breaking mission for any aspiring spies’, says auctioneer
- The cufflinks will go on sale at Mallams auctioneers in Oxford on November 17
- Can you crack the code? Contact mark.tovey@mailonline.co.uk
A mysterious spy-like code has been found on a pair of cufflinks owned by James Bond author Ian Fleming.
Author Fleming wore the cultured pearl set to the ‘Dr No’ post-film screening party in 1962.
They are now due to be auctioned – but contain a 007-esque code made up of a series of letters.
The backs of the cufflinks are inscribed with ‘WUS’, ‘SIL’, ‘UDH’ and ‘NUF’ – believed to represent a so-far unsolved secret message.
The enigmatic cufflinks will go on sale at Mallams auctioneers in Oxford on November 17.
The cufflinks are inscribed with the letters ‘WUS’, ‘SIL’, ‘UDH’ and ‘NUF’ – an as-yet unsolved code
The enigmatic cufflinks, made of pearl, were owned by James Bond author Ian Fleming and will be sold at Mallams auctioneers in Oxford on November 17
Its listing says: ‘Surely a perfect code-breaking mission for any aspiring spies out there.
‘Ian Fleming’s service in the Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War, together with his experiences as a journalist, inspired much of his writing for the character of James Bond, an officer in the Secret Intelligence Service.
Ian Fleming served in the Naval Intelligence Division during World War II, an experience he drew upon when creating the character of James Bond in the 1952 novel ‘Casino Royale’
Bond author Ian Fleming wore the cufflinks to the ‘Dr No’ post-film screening party in 1962
‘Bond was introduced in the 1952 novel ‘Casino Royale’ and so captured the public’s imagination that Fleming penned eleven further Bond novels, two collections of short stories with subsequent adaptations for film, television and radio.
‘These circular cufflinks, which come to Mallams by family descent, are sure to prove popular with James Bond enthusiasts and carry an estimate of £800-£1200.’
During his service in the Naval Intelligence Division, Fleming drew up a plan to capture a German Enigma codebook by hijacking a Nazi rescue boat, according to an article published in the Literary James Bond Magazine.
The plan – which he laid out in a memo to the Director of Naval Intelligence on September 12 1940 – involved crashing a captured German plane into the Channel, thereby attracting a Nazi recue boat to the scene, which Fleming hoped would have a book onboard with the key to cracking the Enigma code.
Fleming’s code-cracking plan, named ‘Operation Ruthless’, was ultimately never carried out due to logistical issues with it – for example, the ‘fake’ German bomber Fleming wanted to crash into the Channel would have floated, putting the disguised crew inside the Trojan horse at high risk of being detected before they could hijack the German rescue boat that was scrambled to save them.
In total, Fleming wrote 14 Bond books which have sold over 100million copies worldwide. He died in 1964.
**Can you crack the code? Contact mark.tovey@mailonline.co.uk**
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