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GA&U 1955 Hobbit (7th Impression)

29 Jun, 2013
2013-6-29 6:36:36 AM UTC

I was looking at a David Miller Hobbit

http://www.tolkienbookshelf.com/pages ... on-in-original-dustjacket

and David has stated the following in the description

"The dustjacket is price clipped, both front and rear flap, with the publishers new price printed below the impression notation on the front flap. Two months into production of the 7th Impression of the Hobbits, along with the remaining original 7th Impression dustjackets, this true UK 7th impression dustjacket was price clipped -- both front and rear flap -- by Allen & Unwin publishing company itself, with their new price of 12s.6d overprinted below the impression notation on the front flap."

and indeed looking at the picture this seems to be correct.

However looking at Deagol's article (http://www.tolkienbooks.net/php/earlyhobbits.php), the price increase did not happen until the 8th Impression (1956).

3,150 A&U jackets were printed in January 1956. 1,260 of these were overprinted with a new price in March 1956 and the remainder in October 1956. The price had changed from 9s.6d to 12s.6d.

Is the 7th impression commonly seen with this price increase on the dust-jacket?

10_51ce7e3f4e4bd.jpg 964X621 px
29 Jun, 2013
2013-6-29 8:09:54 AM UTC
Just checked mine- it has original price on it
good observation though
29 Jun, 2013
2013-6-29 3:41:57 PM UTC
I have re-read my notes on the A&U ledgers and correspondence files.
I had wrongly assumed that the binders would invoice for the re-pricing as soon as it was done, but having looked again I would say that 1,002 copies of the 7th impression were produced with the new price. The 8th impression jackets had already been printed, so they too were re-priced, probably in March when the first batch of 8th impression copies were bound.
30 Jun, 2013
2013-6-30 6:53:52 AM UTC
Thanks Deagol, that clears up the situation

I forgot to mention that my copy like laurel's has the original price on it.

The reason for asking the question is that I am interested in building up a spreadsheet table on original publisher prices on UK Hobbits.

This looks to be quite straightforward up until the 3rd Edition (where impression numbers are dropped from the dust-jackets), but even so some of the earlier Hobbit's could have had multiple prices, as in this case, and I am trying to tackle those first.
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