Strider wrote:

They both say "[signed limited edition]"?

There was potentially going to be a release last year, I emailed HC at the time and they said something about Alan had no free time for signing or something like that IIRC. I think I posted about it here at the time. I’m sure Trotter or someone knows the details better

Found it “ Our Tolkien team have advised we had hoped to do a simultaneous signed edition, but unfortunately plans had to be changed after this went to press”

Aaah! Interesting! I wonder if these books were printed last year, and sat in storage until Alan Lee was available to sign them...

ETA: Upon reflection, there's footage of Alan signing individual pages, so I would assume that these books were (probably) printed and (certainly) bound later than the unsigned edition.

Really a shame you got a number higher than the number of copies actually sold as of now...

One of my copies is #834, so as I mentioned they are random.

Emilien wrote:

Really a shame you got a number higher than the number of copies actually sold as of now...

The number means nothing to me, it’s the signature I treasure :)

Trotter wrote:

One of my copies is #834, so as I mentioned they are random.

Yes, that's a fact.
But I still think that's a shame, IMHO and as far as I'm concerned.

Gerontius Took wrote:

Emilien wrote:

Really a shame you got a number higher than the number of copies actually sold as of now...

The number means nothing to me, it’s the signature I treasure :)

No problem, we all have our own priorities

How is the paper compared to the stadard deluxe?

Emilien wrote:

Gerontius Took wrote:

Emilien wrote:

Really a shame you got a number higher than the number of copies actually sold as of now...

The number means nothing to me, it’s the signature I treasure :)

No problem, we all have our own priorities

How is the paper compared to the stadard deluxe?

To my uneducated hand they feel pretty similar

The cover looks exactly the same, to the tee. Last year’s spine, despite not being real leather, looks better to me ngl

Gerontius Took wrote:

Next to last years edition

I have #183.