My best three (Tolkien) lucky finds were:

1. (bookshop) Harper Collins Peoples of Middle Earth 1st ed hb d/j £5
2. (bookshop) Farmer Giles of Ham 2nd impression 1957 hb d/j 60p
3 (ebay) Folio Numbered Limited Edition 3-vol LOTR slipcased £75

I think i remember looking this up whe I bought my copy and found that "Elephant Hide" is just a tough paper which doesn't scuff easily. Not made from real elephants.

I'm afraid I do not own a copy to compare.

People do refer to this as "uncut" but I think the correct term is "unopened pages". "Uncut" refers to pages that have not been trimmed, ie have ragged edges.

I have a re-bound 1936 Julienne and and the EETS Katerine.

The Preface to the Katerine says: "When SRTOd'A first planned this edition over forty years ago, she had hoped to have the collaboration of JRR Tolkien, the academic supervisor of her work on Seinte Julienne but, in the event, (initially becasue of the war of 1939-1945) he took no part in it"

So the Katerine has some (but limited) Tolkien interest.

As garm points out, twe books is a better choice from an academic point of view.

Like him, I would hesitate to advise you but have to say the 1936 Julienne is very rare in my experience and passing up a chance to get one would be hard. You may well find a copy of the Katerine again in the future.