J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (1937) Peter Harrington £150,000
This is one of two untrimmed pre-publication sets of sheets that were collected by Tolkien himself from the printers and are printed on slightly different paper stock from the eventual trade edition. It was given by Tolkien to his friend Russell Meiggs for his opinion. After receiving the sheets and reading the final version as it would be published, Meiggs wrote to Tolkien with his thoughts on the book, and Tolkien forwarded Meiggs’s letter to the publishers, noting: “The most valuable is the document I enclose, in case it may interest you: a letter from R. Meiggs (at present editing the Oxford Magazine). He has no reason for sparing my feelings, and is usually a plain speaker. Of course, he has no connexions with reviewing coteries, and is virtually a mere member of the avuncular public.” The first edition was published on September 21, 1937, and the first impression of 1,500 copies was sold out by December.
Call me ignorant but, why is there no mention of the binding job? It has such a unique provenance, yet no mention is made to what was eventually done to it, and why.
Given that it currently looks like a BDSM fetish, what would a rebind do to the value of this book?
It looks like a rebinding from the 80s. But the story behind it sounds implausible. For me it's a normal rebind and worth a tenth of the asking price maximum.
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