Questions about Tolkien's Library
6 Nov, 2007
2007/11/6 4:37:11 (GMT) Greenwich Mean Time, London, Dublin, Lisbon, Casablanca, Monrovia
2007/11/6 4:37:11 (GMT) Greenwich Mean Time, London, Dublin, Lisbon, Casablanca, Monrovia
Hi all.
I hope everyone is well and your collection growing.
Can anyone tell me information about how Tolkien's library was auctioned off after his passing away. How many books were sold, who was the auction company and when were they acutioned? Was an auction catalogue produced?
Of course, any other info would be appreciated
Dior
I hope everyone is well and your collection growing.
Can anyone tell me information about how Tolkien's library was auctioned off after his passing away. How many books were sold, who was the auction company and when were they acutioned? Was an auction catalogue produced?
Of course, any other info would be appreciated
Dior
A fine question, and I don't have my pile of references handy for accuracy. I don't remember there being any one specific sale or auction where his library was sold off. There were certainly some bulk sales made to dealers both when he was alive (moving to smaller quarters) and by the family later, but there are no catalogs (auction or dealer) for any significant part of his library in one sale.
I have heard that Christopher still has most of his father's fiction library. The academic books and pamphlets were sold to several different people in Oxford, one of which attached labels to the books saying 'From the Library of J.R.R. Tolkien".
The biggest auction lot I know of was sold at Sotheby's on 18 December 1992 - the estimate was 1000-1500 GBP. The lot consisted of 392 offprints and pamphlets, 56 of which were annotated by JRRT - all bore the JRRT library label.
The biggest auction lot I know of was sold at Sotheby's on 18 December 1992 - the estimate was 1000-1500 GBP. The lot consisted of 392 offprints and pamphlets, 56 of which were annotated by JRRT - all bore the JRRT library label.
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