I have a 1st and a reprint and to be honest the quality has declined, the 1st has a nice tight slipcase, rounded spine however the reprints are from china and the slipcases on the reprints, at least on the recent ones, are loose. The Silmarillion was ridiculous with a very visible gap, again the 1sts are tight, also the recent ones seem to be missing the price which my 1sts all have. Are there American prints of these or are they Harper Collins too?

In America it Houghton Mifflin has not done deluxe editions very often - the red "leatherette" LOTR, the 50th anniversary blue slipcased one, and the green (then gold) slipcased Hobbit.

Easton Press has done leather-bound editions of many Tolkien books, under license from Houghton Mifflin, since 1984.

That's as close as it comes to the UK deluxe editions.

Urulókë wrote:
In America it Houghton Mifflin has not done deluxe editions very often - the red "leatherette" LOTR, the 50th anniversary blue slipcased one, and the green (then gold) slipcased Hobbit.

Easton Press has done leather-bound editions of many Tolkien books, under license from Houghton Mifflin, since 1984.

That's as close as it comes to the UK deluxe editions.

Not strictly true, as CoH & S&G got deluxes that were broadly similar to the HC ones (and also printed by LEGO).

Dang, you are right. I blocked those from my memory.

I prefer the American deluxe editions, they are worthy of the deluxe tag, The big red Leather lotr, the green leather Hobbit and gold and the 50th anniversary one. The Deluxe ones here in the u.k are basically paper and board and will wear easily, I'd say the best deluxe ones in the U.K were the Hobbit, Lotr and Silmarillion from 2001 I think, quarter bound in leather and cloth in black leather slipcases with gold leaf on the page edges and stamped on the front.

Not strictly true, as CoH & S&G got deluxes that were broadly similar to the HC ones (and also printed by LEGO).

Stu, which ones are these?

These ones...

(and I meant to say S&G was printed by Clays. CoH was LEGO).

Oh ok, so not printed in china?I havn't got S&G

Paulies wrote:
Oh ok, so not printed in china?I haven't got S&G

Nope, not China. They only had one print, so far as I am aware, and certainly S&G got remaindered. I paid less than $5 for it a few years ago. No idea what the print run was, but for CoH, it was 25,000 copies.

Edit: 10,000 copies as correctly pointed out by Berelach.

FWIW, the S&G is slightly thinner than the HC version, both in terms of the book and slipcase.

Urulókë wrote:
Dang, you are right. I blocked those from my memory.

To be fair, they are quite forgettable!