It was Nicholas Davies, a co-director of the firm, who spotted the ink correction of the name ‘Dodgeson’ that identified the book as an early issue, and, after checking the other relevant points, valued it at £6000-7000, despite “the tired and worn condition of the jacket”.
However, the saleroom also report that the buyer – presumably a dealer familiar with such things – described it as “one of the tidiest copies to have come on the market in recent years”. It was not, however, a record at auction for an unsigned copy, as the auctioneers suggested. At Sotheby’s last December, a fine first issue made £24,000.
Early issue Hobbits have a £10,300 day out in Hagley
Apparently consigned for sale by a local lady who had no idea of its commercial potential – it had been acquired as holiday reading when she was a young girl – a 1937 first edition of The Hobbit was sold at £10,300 in a general antiques sale held by Fieldings in Hagley, Worcester-shire, on April 26.
