Nice acquisitions, and I love the idea of the info cards!

Trotter's catalogues got a slipcase....

I see these as an important point-in-time record of pricing on a set of books that overlaps fairly considerably with my own collection (plus I had some purple cloth laying around)..

Today's arrival was a very tatty 1962 box. Although tatty, it is actually perfectly strong, surprisingly.

Cost £35 incl. postage, but included two saleable-but-scruffy books (Fellowship was totally munted so I immediately tossed into recycling bin). Sold the two books for the £35 (was not looking to make a profit here), so basically ended up with free tatty box (for a bit of labour packing/posting the books).

Not sure what I'll do with it, but worth it for nothing!

Great deal on the box Stu. They are a valuable commodity these days...looks to be a sixth state.

Mr. Underhill wrote:

Great deal on the box Stu. They are a valuable commodity these days...looks to be a sixth state.

Yeah, I assume sixth state, based on the age of the books that were in it. I was surprised at the use of staples in the base to hold the two layers together. Not sure if that same method is used in all the box states? Clearly had to be done with a long-arm before the sides were folded in, due to the orientation of the staples. You can certainly see how - like most modern lotR slipcases - these were made down to a very tight budget (on account of the slipcased books retailing at the same price as the individual volumes combined).

The late Stu wrote:

Mr. Underhill wrote:

Great deal on the box Stu. They are a valuable commodity these days...looks to be a sixth state.

Yeah, I assume sixth state, based on the age of the books that were in it. I was surprised at the use of staples in the base to hold the two layers together. Not sure if that same method is used in all the box states? Clearly had to be done with a long-arm before the sides were folded in, due to the orientation of the staples. You can certainly see how - like most modern lotR slipcases - these were made down to a very tight budget (on account of the slipcased books retailing at the same price as the individual volumes combined).

Only the 5th and 6th state boxes are stapled...if I remember correctly.

Mr. Underhill wrote:

The late Stu wrote:

Mr. Underhill wrote:

Great deal on the box Stu. They are a valuable commodity these days...looks to be a sixth state.

Yeah, I assume sixth state, based on the age of the books that were in it. I was surprised at the use of staples in the base to hold the two layers together. Not sure if that same method is used in all the box states? Clearly had to be done with a long-arm before the sides were folded in, due to the orientation of the staples. You can certainly see how - like most modern lotR slipcases - these were made down to a very tight budget (on account of the slipcased books retailing at the same price as the individual volumes combined).

Only the 5th and 6th state boxes are stapled...if I remember correctly.

Thanks - I didn't feel like I'd seen it before.


Edit: Checked Neil's section on tolkienbooks.net - this is definitely 6th state (as expected).

Confirm. First 4th states are not using staples.
Below pictures of the first and fourth states I own

Thanks, Emillien - that's useful. I intend to make a facsimile of the 4th state box at some point. I need to get some cloth of the correct shade. I did have some that I picked up in Canada, but I used it on a clamshell (it was only small piece).

I'd like to be able to provide accurate facsimiles of all the boxes at some point. Will involve getting some acid free craft papers, so I can make the better quality boards look worse! Also, finding any textured papers of anything close the the right shade hard (potentially impossible).

The late Stu wrote:

Thanks, Emillien - that's useful. I intend to make a facsimile of the 4th state box at some point. I need to get some cloth of the correct shade. I did have some that I picked up in Canada, but I used it on a clamshell (it was only small piece).

I'd like to be able to provide accurate facsimiles of all the boxes at some point. Will involve getting some acid free craft papers, so I can make the better quality boards look worse! Also, finding any textured papers of anything close the the right shade hard (potentially impossible).

Welcome! That's a fun project. Worth mentioning that the 4th state, apart from being covered with linen instead of paper, is the sturdiest of all, cause there is a dual layer of cardboard. (you can see the joins near the thumb indexes)
Your fac simile project is very interesting, because you will need to follow the manufacturing of each state, which was a quest in itself for the publisher at the time to make the box more and more sturdier and durable.

Many details are given here (fantastic article by Deagol) :
https://tolkienbooks.net/php/1st-boxed-lr.php