Signed Silmarillion

I’d personally put this Silmarillion in the Wonders thread - I do not like that signature, or “provenance”.

Urulókë wrote:

I’d personally put this Silmarillion in the Wonders thread - I do not like that signature, or “provenance”.

Well, the provenance aside, look at this thread and signature discussion:

https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/n ... ewtopic.php?topic_id=1006

LanceFormation wrote:

Urulókë wrote:

I’d personally put this Silmarillion in the Wonders thread - I do not like that signature, or “provenance”.

Well, the provenance aside, look at this thread and signature discussion:

https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/n ... ewtopic.php?topic_id=1006

Good reminder! I evidently liked a very similar signature a few years ago. Now I am curious if "John Taylor" was an employee of GA&U and selling (a week before publication) a signed copy that he got that way.

Urulókë wrote:

LanceFormation wrote:

Urulókë wrote:

I’d personally put this Silmarillion in the Wonders thread - I do not like that signature, or “provenance”.

Well, the provenance aside, look at this thread and signature discussion:

https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/n ... ewtopic.php?topic_id=1006

Good reminder! I evidently liked a very similar signature a few years ago. Now I am curious if "John Taylor" was an employee of GA&U and selling (a week before publication) a signed copy that he got that way.

My signed edition has an embossed stamp, from the library of J.A. Taylor, on the page with Christopher's signature. Is this the same person?

It does seem there were a number of these books with what appears to be a Christopher Tolkien signature all in a similar style.

I have one and TolkienLibrary.com has had 2 or 3 for sale.

Also has one originally signed by Christopher. Purchased some years ago one ebay. The seller told me the book belonged to her father who's worked at Billings printer. Got it signed also by the Tolkien family at Aubusson this year.

Mine has a variant for the written form of the first 's' from 'Christopher':
- 's' is attached to the 't' (like he used to do for the 'p' with the 'h'.) (picture 1, my copy, and picture 1.1, from a bunch of letters sold on ebay some months ago))
This variant written form is less common than the other two :
- 's' detached from the 't', with the 't' having a small loop (like in the current ebay listing and some on the tolkienlibrary), picture 2)
- different written form, 's' detached from the 't' and a bit flatten (like in another letter from the same batch sold on ebay, picture 3)

I reached out to Beren to ask his opinion on the signature, since he has had many like this in his library. He said it looked genuine to him, but wasn't one that he has previously sold.

Sold for GBP 1,320