Hi,
I have just stumbled upon a book that was missing in the family for years.

My great Aunt was given it by Tolkien when she was a nurse for him at some point.
It is a copy of "Smith of wootton major" and the inscribed words are.." to nurse Beaton" and then signed by Tolkien.

I launched a hunt for this book about a year ago after reading that a guy sold a postcard signed by Tolkien was found at the back of a fireplace.

The Aunt that he gave it to died about 4 years ago and no one knew where the book was.
Turned up last week at her sisters house in a back room.

Is it worth much? and where is the best place to contact to sell it?
Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.. Stephen

There has been a lot of problems with Fake signatures recently on Tolkien books, the best thing to do would be to take a picture of the page with the signature and also the page showing the printings of the book and it upload them to this site, you have an attach file option available to you.

Andrew

Hello Stephen
Andrews advise is good as there are many very experienced Tolkien collectors who view this site and will give their free expert opinion. In terms of selling there is of course ebay with a world wide audience and private auction houses. Both will take a commision (ebay 10% , auction houses usually 10-20%).

I am sure others will add their thoughts but i personally would auction via ebay with plenty of photos or simply set the figure you are happy with and make item a fixed price if not offay with auction system.

Look forward to viewing pictures

Regarding the postcard from behind the fireplace - it wasn't from Tolkien; it was apparently addressed to his wife, (though whether even that is true seemed far from clear, as far as I can recall.)

I hadn't heard that it had actually sold. I wonder how much it went for?

Sorry for the double post - if it were me, I'd take the book along to Sotheby's for evaluation.