Edited by Mr. Underhill on 2023-1-13 6:50:19 PM UTC Edited by Mr. Underhill on 2023-1-13 7:15:33 PM UTC Edited by Urulókë on 2023-1-13 7:46:05 PM UTC Edited by Urulókë on 2023-2-6 6:57:40 PM UTC Edited by Trotter on 2023-2-8 7:43:52 PM UTC
2023-1-13 6:41:42 PM UTC
Auction 08 Feb 2023 10:00 GMT
Lot 221 Tolkien, J. R. R. (1892-1973) The Hobbit
You should always exercise good judgement and perform appropriate due-diligence when acquiring signed items to ensure that you are satisfied with the provenance and integrity of any item you bid on.
Cover
Tolkien, J. R. R. (1892-1973) The Hobbit or There and Back Again. Illustrated by the Author. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1966. Third edition, second impression (sixteenth impression overall), 8vo, original green boards lettered and decorated in blue, map endpapers, 317 pp., colour frontispiece depicting Hobbiton, 3 further colour plates ('Rivendell'; 'Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-elves'; 'Conversation with Smaug'), illustrations in text (several full-page), with the dust jacket, spotting to top edge of text-block, dust jacket spine browned, concomitant fading to spine of book
Note:
Inscribed by the author 'for Mr. I. Chambers, J. R. R. Tolkien' on the title-page, with the bookplate of the recipient Ivan Chambers OBE (1902-1998) on the front free endpaper. Chambers was a noted bookseller who worked for the dealership W. J. Bryce, which operated from premises on London's Museum Street in a building owned by Stanley Unwin, Tolkien's publisher. 'The success of Tolkien's writing, as well as his subsequent fanatical worldwide readership, was due in no small part to the author–publisher relationship that existed between Tolkien, Stanley Unwin, and later [Stanley's son] Rayner Unwin' (ODNB).
The handwriting of the inscription and the signature are both correct. (I'll leave it to others to speculate on why the ink of the inscription differs in color from that of the signature.)
The recipient, Mr. I[van] Chambers, had several interesting congruences of life with Tolkien: Ivan Chambers obituary
Estimate 3,000 GBP - 5,000 GBP Sold for £17,640 including fees
The Fellowship of the Ring; The Two Towers; The Return of the King. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1954-54-55. 3 works, 8vo, original red cloth, spines lettered in gilt, top edges dyed red, folding map printed in red and black to rear of each work, with the dust jackets (each unclipped and retaining original price of 21s), Fellowship with illustrations in text (map of the Shire; inscription on the One Ring; and the gate of Moria), Return of the King with signature-mark '4' and sagging type on p.49. Spines rolled, spotting to endpapers, strips of browning to free endpapers, dust jackets variably marked and with a few nicks and closed tears along edges, jacket spines sunned, scuffed and with light fraying and softening to head and foot; Fellowship with a few light spots to outer text-leaves and to map, tips bumped, jacket front panel with strip of browning along top edge and small hole to lower fore corner; Two Towers jacket with small perforation towards head
Note: First editions, first impressions, each volume respectively one of 3,000, 3,250 and 7,000 copies only.
Estimate 10,000 GBP - 15,000 GBP Sold for £25,200 including fees
Lot 223 Tolkien, J.R.R. and miscellaneous 18 volumes
Cover
Tolkien, J.R.R. and miscellaneous 18 volumes
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Fellowship of the Ring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1954. First American edition, original blue cloth; Idem. The Two Towers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1955. First American edition, original blue cloth, very worn dustwrapper; Idem. The Return of the King. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1955, First edition, [1st impression], folding map, original red cloth, dustwrapper price clipped and split at fold, slightly frayed and slightly soiled; Mitford, Mary Russell. Our Village. London: G. & W. B. Whittaker, 1824. 8vo, contemporary half calf; Moore, Thomas. The Epicurean. 1827. Third edition, 12mo, contemporary half calf; Smith, J.E. and Mr Sowerby. Supplement to The English Botany. London 1849, volume 4 only, hand-coloured engraved plates numbered 2868-2960, contemporary calf gilt; Ludlow, F. "Birds of Bhutan, Sikkim and S.E. Tibet, 1927-50" (title from spine). 8vo, extracted articles from the Ibis, plates, folding maps, brown buckram lettered in gilt; Seton-Thompson, Ernest. Lives of the Hunted. London: D. Nutt, 1901. 8vo, illustrations, original pictorial cloth; Chrystal, Major R.A. Angling at Lochboisdale South Uist. London, 1939. 8vo, original cloth; Skues, G.E.M. The Way of a Trout with a Fly. London, 1935. Third edition, 8vo, plates, original cloth; Schomberg, R.C.F. Kafirs and Glaciers. Travels in Chitral. 1938. 8vo, plates, folding map, NLS deaccession stamp to endpaper; Kearton, Richard. With Nature and a Camera. 1904. 8vo, illustrations, original cloth, rubbed; Wade, Rev. W.M. Delineations, historical, topographical and descriptive of the Watering and Sea-Bathing Places of Scotland. Paisley, 1822. 12mo, original boards, uncut, rebacked with cloth; Smith, Rev. Gerard. The Ferns of Derbyshire, illustrated from Nature. London: Bemrose, 1869. 8vo, 6th edition, additional coloured lithographed title, coloured plates, later wrappers; Gray, Alasdair. Lanark. Edinburgh: Canongate Publishing, 1981. First edition, 8vo, original cloth, dustwrapper; Gould, B.J. The Jewel in the Lotus. 1957, 8vo, original cloth; Fitzpatrick, Sir Percy. Jock of the Bushveld. 1941. 8vo, original cloth; Dandy, J.E. and G. Taylor. Studies of British Potamogetons 1-3. Extracted from The Journal of Botany, August 1938-40, 5 extracts in a ring binder, bookplate of Sir George Taylor, blue cloth, sold not subject to return
Estimate 300 GBP - 500 GBP Sold for £2,772 including fees
Have you guys found out why the ink used for the signatures and inscription different?
I believe Aelfwine stated that the signature is genuine. So I suppose this copy is a sound copy?
As always You should always exercise good judgement and perform appropriate due-diligence when acquiring signed items to ensure that you are satisfied with the provenance and integrity of any item you bid on, but in this case no issues have been identified with the inscription or the signature in this book.
The inscription is very near the edge of the page, suggesting oxidation as the reason for the difference in colour. The page itself is almost certainly slightly darkened in the same area; this is not uncommon along the upper and outer (i.e. the left and right) edges. The image is not of a quality which would relay that.
Context really, really matters. A Lord Nelson signed document dealing with his career or Lordship would likely sell for many times more than what a marriage certificate (not in his hand, just with his signature on it) for a couple that is of no contextual importance either to Lord Nelson himself, or just a well known couple from that period for other reasons. To use Tolkien as an example - a handwritten letter describing in depth something about Middle-earth would sell for 10x what a letter that just says "please come by next week Tuesday to discuss your progress" to an otherwise unknown student. The price of this marriage certificate seems to have surprised the auctioneer as well as a few others. I'm no expert in the field at all, but I don't see any evidence myself that would indicate this was extremely cheap.
Fame and collectibility don't go always go hand in hand. It is also not at all uncommon for some famous people to also have been extremely prolific in writing letters or signing documents, meaning that even if they are more famous than Tolkien, it is much easier to find and purchase a signature for your collection and thus likely less expensive.
Thank you Urulókë for providing the badly needed context in response to the previous comment. I was working on gathering the evidence but you beat me to it!
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