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Identifying Silmarillion 1977 export edition

Subject: Identifying Silmarillion 1977 export edition
by SonOfDolf on 2011/10/24 14:06:09

I see a lot of 1977 Silmarillion copies for sale on Ebay but I have a bit of trouble identifying the correct version. From tolkienbooks.net I understand I should be looking for the first state of the export edition.

They describe two states of the first edition and add that "Minor textual differences indicate that Variant 1 was printed before Variant 2."

State 1: Dark blue cloth binding, with blue and white striped headband, dyed blue top edge and dark blue coloured dustwrapper.

State 2: Dark blue textured paper binding, no headband, no dye to top edge and purple/blue coloured dustwrapper.

Most sellers only include a photo of the front of the dustwrapper.

So my question is can I identify a first state from a photo like that or should I ask for additional photos of the book without the dustwrapper. And if so is it easy to see the difference between a "Dark blue cloth binding" and a "Dark blue textured paper binding" from a photo. Does anybody have photos for me as an example.

Additionally suppose I should find a first state of this book how much should I reasonably expect to pay for it?