The signature of the a former owner appeared in each volume of Tolkien’s famous trilogy, but it was the author’s own signature that appeared on the half title of a copy of The Hobbit. This too was in a dust jacket, and though it was a 1968 copy, not a first edition (with a photograph of Tolkien and staff at Allen & Unwin taken when the book was signed, on July 14, 1972, tucked inside), this proved perfectly acceptablee and, estimated at
£500-600, this late vintage but signed Hobbit was bid to £3000.
Buyer’s premium: 15 per cent
The first Hobbits of the Year?
UK: THE first serious outbreak of Hobbits of 2001 occurred in Hamptons’ Godalming salerooms on February 15, when a first edition set of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the three volumes of 1955-56 in first issue dust wrappers with some slight discolouration and chipping, sold at £11,000.
