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Hobbit on ‘The Antiques Roadshow’

17 Feb, 2009
2009-2-17 5:49:02 AM UTC

"Last night I was watching ‘The Antiques Roadshow’, a long-running TV programme on the BBC in the UK. It involves members of the public bringing antiques and so on to show to experts, in order to get more information about them, and a valuation. Those of you in the UK can see the programme on the BBC’s iPlayer for the next five or six days, here.The interesting bit is about 35 minutes 45 seconds into the programme. For those of you who can’t view iPlayer, I’ll give you a rundown. A lady had brought in her copy of ‘The Hobbit’, a first edition from 1937. In about 1940-41, she had lent the book to a friend. She forgot who she’d lent it to, and her friend forgot who she’d borrowed if from, presumably not thinking to look inside the fly-leaf, where the owner’s name was written.

Last year this lady was visiting another friend in Beverley, Yorkshire, and her friend said, “I’ve had a call from Edwina’s daughter. She asked if we’d like to go over and have coffee with her.” Edwina being a friend who had died in the 1970s.

Off the two ladies went, and once they were settled, Edwina’s daughter went out and returned with a bag. She took out the copy of ‘The Hobbit’, saying, “I promised myself if you ever came over, I’d give this back to you.”

The lady in the programme was very pleased to have the book back after sixty-odd years. She was also fairly happy when the expert told her that, at auction, it would fetch between £2,000 and £3,000."

From theonering.net

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2009/ ... on-the-antiques-roadshow/

10_499a591551030.jpg 640X364 px
17 Feb, 2009
2009-2-17 11:17:12 AM UTC
Aye! I saw the old Antiques Road Show too! What a show! (Should I admit to watching it 'live' at the time tho'?...)

The story was good, but is £2000 not a little undervalued? I know auction house prices can be far more 'realistic' in pricing than eBay; but a copy with a fairly tatty jacket (not with quite so much loss as her copy) just went on eBay for $11,300.

The Hobbit 1st Edition/1st Imp w/DJ *Stunning Rarity*

A while back that would have been ~ £6000 (currently eBay quoting ~£7800); but we don't know whether buyer was US or UK based or not. Either way, that jacket doesn't look much better. The book may not have the inscription (which may also devalue the copy), but in some respects the copy is not that superior.

Then again, I haven't really paid that much attention to the top end of the Tolkien market in recent years; so mabey £2K -£3K is about right...

BH
21 Feb, 2009
2009-2-21 10:57:02 AM UTC
I also thought the valuation was on the low side, if she wanted to insure the book then it should be £5,000 to £6,000 for her book. It was a nice copy of the book, the only problem was the full page inscription, though without that being there she would have lost the book completely.
21 Feb, 2009
2009-2-21 1:01:14 PM UTC
Yes, IIRC the expert said the auction estimate would be 2-3,000 pounds. An insurance estimate ought to be double that, ie what one would expect to pay in a shop. Except that some dealers, esp. two I can think of in the UK, would have the leaf with the inscription replaced, and add 10,000 to the price!
21 Feb, 2009
2009-2-21 2:45:56 PM UTC
But they would not get that price any more, the credit crunch has put paid to that.

The only way to get someone to pay £10K+ for Tolkien items in today's climate is to have 'signed' items and I think this site is doing a wonderful job in finding fakes and stopping them being sold, so they have to have provable provenance.
21 Feb, 2009
2009-2-21 11:35:39 PM UTC
"But they would not get that price any more, the credit crunch has put paid to that."

True - but that small fact doesn't deter them! As a glance at abe.books will show; high prices being asked for unsigned copies. A lot of the more expensive ones seem to be bought by other dealers, and so spend a lot of their time on aircraft over the Atlantic, being moved from one high-priced bookstore to another, when their real place ought to be on my shelf! In an ideal world...

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