Picked this up recently. It is a publisher’s dummy/mock-up (or salesman’s copy) of the 1973 US Collector’s Edition Hobbit. The entire book is just blank pages with some variations to the cover, spine, slipcase and end papers as compared to the final published first printing.
I added a few images with the mock-up being in the top and left in the images compared to a 1973 1st printing which is bottom and right.
Additionally, there was a advertising blurb that came with the book (interesting that the original price of $10 was crossed out and $12.50 written in.)
That's fantastic! I have not seen one of these before. It is really interesting to see what design choices they were thinking before they settled on the final version.
This had been listed on ABE for literally years; I'm really surprised nobody noticed.
I suspected it had been up there for a while. I actually saw this listing months ago on ABE and Biblio and reached out to the seller multiple times but received no response. I decided to try again last week and they responded pretty quickly. Could be Covid lockdowns in California played a part…who knows.
This had been listed on ABE for literally years; I'm really surprised nobody noticed.
Nice to see someone pick it up though.
To be honest, if something isn't newly listed I generally won't notice it on Abe or eBay. I rarely search existing listings and more rely on seeing anything interesting as it pops up (not that I would have bought this - I'm happy to see the pictures and enjoy it from afar!).
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