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By Feanor
Just popping in

The 'unseen' Silmarillion Dummy

31 May
2025-5-31 5:28:56 AM UTC

I recently acquired a Silmarillion Dummy and after searching for more information I came across this forum which in turn someone had linked to this blog post: Silmarillion Minutiae

The writer goes into detail of an unseen 'Currey Dummy 'A''. I believe that my copy matches that description - with the redacted ISBN, 23 Chapters, imprint. The exception is that mine has the (approximate) price on the dust jacket.

I've tried to note some other variations - it has different pagination with the foreward beginning page 3 instead of 7. This means the non-blank pages end at p.29 (equivalent of p.33 if it was a standard numbering). The binding is different, it is hard to tell in the photo (and in real life) as it's so faded but it looks like rhe spine has the title almost identical to the spine of the dust jacket. While it has the blank map to the rear, it doesn't have the other map printed within the blank pages.








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31 May
2025-5-31 6:18:12 AM UTC
Thank you for posting this.
This looks to be the variant A of the Silmarillion dummy indeed.
Never seen one in real, it looks like the spine of the binding has retained the imprint of the titles of the dust jacket.
Interesting to see this variant of the dummy does not have gilt titles and heraldic on the spine.
Fantastic find!
31 May
2025-5-31 9:25:18 AM UTC
Wonderful! I notified the writer of the blog of this find. Also its always nice to see Currey related silmarillion stuff :)
18 hours ago
2025-6-1 1:08:30 AM UTC
A part of the blog mentions: "A fully blank dummy copy was listed for sale on TOLKIENLIBRARY.COM (c. 2010) and described as ‘completely filled with blank pages’; however, no later than 2017, the description was amended to include a qualifier stating ‘all the signs are there [that] someone removed the first 32 pages’. Holford's original TOLKIENBOOKS.NET entry (now amended) had used information derived from an earlier EBAY listing for this same book.[3] This third Holford dummy state with no printed content—possibly (hypothetically) preceding both the 32 and 35 page states—is now thought not to exist."

Can confirm that this copy does exist and is with me now, acquired from TolkienLibrary.com a while ago. Will post pictures shortly
18 hours ago
2025-6-1 1:10:13 AM UTC
Please see attached —

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