that's a smashing case Trotter!

Excellent Trotter. Very nice. Out of curiosity (having never had a custom slipcase or box made), is it expensive to do.

Very nice!

remy wrote:

Excellent Trotter. Very nice. Out of curiosity (having never had a custom slipcase or box made), is it expensive to do.

Depends on what you want when you order it, it would have cost more if it had raised bands, full leather, etc. but this example was £250, which I think is quite reasonable for a hand-made quality item.

Trotter wrote:

remy wrote:

Excellent Trotter. Very nice. Out of curiosity (having never had a custom slipcase or box made), is it expensive to do.

Depends on what you want when you order it, it would have cost more if it had raised bands, full leather, etc. but this example was £250, which I think is quite reasonable for a hand-made quality item.

Thanks for the info. I imagine quite a number of hours go into producing these - and since they are one-off's - no cost savings on duplication.

Got my first 1st edition set. 5th or 6th state.

Books are overall in great condition. Dust jackets have zero tanning at all. Some tape needs to be removed as the dust jacket has a mylar taped to it. I'll have that done later. Box needs repairs too. And the binding on fellowship is a little loose. The text block also needs to be cleaned I think.

Posted an example of what's going on inside the books.

Any thoughts?

If you're wondering, I got the set for 650 euro.

I would have waited for a better set, as these sets are not that uncommon, hopefully the restoration work is well done, and it is not too expensive.

Trotter wrote:

I would have waited for a better set, as these sets are not that uncommon, hopefully the restoration work is well done, and it is not too expensive.

Found a reputable restorer quote at $35/hr for about 2-3 hours of work.

Another one who is a renowned restorer is charging $135/hour.

Obviously I'm going with the former lol.

Also, I didn't expect to find a set without tanned dust jackets for less than $1000+ honestly, which is why I was willing to risk restoring the books for more $$.

It seems 99.9% of the 1st edition books have tanned spines or worse, and I just wanted a clean set like this. Too bad the red is a little faded into orange though.

Post some pictures after the restoration has been done, of the before and after. We would like to see that.

Trotter wrote:

Post some pictures after the restoration has been done, of the before and after. We would like to see that.

I most definitely will. I'm not sure when I will have it done. There's no rushing these things.

I am still gathering information from various restorers on what can and can't be done. Some are confident in complete removal of stains, tape, etc. I am also looking at my options in fixing the slip case itself. I'm sure it has been done before.

I'm not intending to resell, just keep it in my collection.