Puffin Hobbit

Hard to tell, but it looks like a forgery...Here are a couple of other real signatures for comparison.

(Images borrowed from Manhattan Rare Books and The Tolkien Bookshelf)

Don't think so. I don't think Tolkien out of principal would have signed this edition and if he did not in that location.

It is fake, there is no link between the "L" and the "K", we see here a stop between them and a strong mark of ink. Same thing between the "E" and the "N"... Usually, there are factors that don t change.

Not only does it look fake, it looks remarkably similar to another fake I've seen recently, presumably on here?

and currently the auctions are at 321£.......

Also, it is an ex school library book. Hard to see any circumstances he would have signed it / been asked to sign it (as presumably it became ex-libris long after his death).