The specialist at Christie’s offered me a closer look at some of the material but I didn’t have the time. I should have at least asked them to bring the LOTR proofs out of the clamshell. Oh well…
Mr. Underhill wrote:
The runes letter fetched six figures...remarkable!
I expect with the markets and financial world going through turmoil that we will see this more and more when items like this come up for sale. People with plenty of money are not going to leave their money in banks doing nothing. Art, ephemera, etc right now offer a safe way to store one's money.
onthetrail wrote:
Mr. Underhill wrote:
The runes letter fetched six figures...remarkable!
I expect with the markets and financial world going through turmoil that we will see this more and more when items like this come up for sale. People with plenty of money are not going to leave their money in banks doing nothing. Art, ephemera, etc right now offer a safe way to store one's money.
Oh yes, I am aware of this. I was just surprised that the letter got more than the complete set of proofs. I would have thought it would have been the opposite.
Mr. Underhill wrote:
onthetrail wrote:
Mr. Underhill wrote:
The runes letter fetched six figures...remarkable!
I expect with the markets and financial world going through turmoil that we will see this more and more when items like this come up for sale. People with plenty of money are not going to leave their money in banks doing nothing. Art, ephemera, etc right now offer a safe way to store one's money.
Oh yes, I am aware of this. I was just surprised that the letter got more than the complete set of proofs. I would have thought it would have been the opposite.
I thought the Rune letter would be the hit of the sale because it can generate future interest and research. Given the amount of content. But, I was surpised that the proofs only doubled the estimate. I thought those two items would be much closer at the hammer.
It was also a great day for J.R.R. Tolkien. The “Rosetta Stone of Middle Earth,” a remarkable letter in which Tolkien explains the development of runes and languages used in The Hobbit, 1943, sold for $107,100, a world record for a letter by Tolkien.
https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/news ... -hobbit-sold-world-record
ibid wrote:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkwUpk7o0mY/
At 1:08, the proof shows the printer failed to add several hand-written special signs in the Cirth value table into the published version, probably a mistake that lasts for 67 years till today.
Of course, some of them, like ǖ for 45, œ for 52 could be just Tolkien changed his mind. But I believe he wouldn't in any case delete ə for 55 and ʌ for 56!
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