It was self-published. I don't want to go into all the ins and outs of it, but the Estate's position on this sort of thing is made clear in the FAQ section of their website -

"Can I / someone else write / complete / develop my / their own version of one of these unfinished tales ? (or any others)
The simple answer is NO.
You are of course free to do whatever you like for your own private enjoyment, but there is no question of any commercial exploitation of this form of "fan-fiction".
Also, in these days of the Internet, and privately produced collectors’ items for sale on eBay, we must make it as clear as possible that the Tolkien Estate never has, and never will authorize the commercialisation or distribution of any works of this type."

Wasn't it 'Bruce' who offered that amount, and was turned down? I can't find the ebay page at the moment.

The cynical among us might feel that the seller is just using the non-sale of the fireplace to get an item into his local paper. I agree, he's not likely to sell without provenance - which reminds me; is Beren around?
.

Thanks, Deagol. So, reading the seller's spiel again, with information from the page you supplied a link to - we can say that this item once belonged to a friend of Tolkien's, but the item itself has no connection whatsoever with JRR.

Now, I got confused whilst reading this sales description. I often wonder, when seeing convoluted pieces of writing such as this, how folk manage who do not have English as a first language. To take a wildly different example - there are folk (native English speakers among them) who are convinced that Lewis and Lacon's 'Fall of Gondolin'' has approval from the Estate. Largely because of wooly descriptions such as we have here.

This one takes the... biscuit.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/aw ... eme-park-coming-soon.html

"A reputable source on the Orlando United forum claims the studio asked Warner Bros. to broach the subject with the Tolkiens—who have a long-standing, trusting relationship with the studio stemming from the success of the Lord of the Rings films."

I'm not sure what to make of this -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1934-Pentat ... ks_UK&hash=item3a7d3c59db

- is this supposed to be inscribed by Tolkien or not? What is meant by ' DTS 74' etc?