The Hobbit: first edition - photo 1
The Hobbit: first edition - photo 2

The Hobbit: first edition

Lot 24
12.12.2024 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 20 160
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
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ID 1353352
Lot 24 | The Hobbit: first edition
Estimate value
£ 8 000 – 12 000
TOLKIEN, J.R.R (1892-1973). The Hobbit. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1937.

First edition of The Hobbit: a major landmark of fantasy literature.

‘The Hobbit began as an amusement for the Tolkien children, and reached print rather unexpectedly, a typescript of it having been shown to Stanley Unwin by a former pupil of Tolkien's. Once published, however, it was an equally unexpected success’ (ODNB). ‘The world's best-selling single work of fiction’ (J.R.R. Tolkien, Life and Legend, p.45), until Harry Potter, it introduces ‘an entirely new mythological race of “hobbits” who, like their representative Bilbo Baggins, are solid, respectable, anachronistically English, and, as appears when Bilbo is sent off by the wizard Gandalf to help recover the lost treasure of the dwarves from the dragon Smaug, capable of unsuspected resource’ (ibid.). Currey 476; Hammond A3a.

Octavo. Frontispiece, one plate and 8 further illustrations in the text (a few faint spots and marks). Original green cloth lettered and decorated in dark blue, cartographic endpapers, top edge green (slightly cocked, some small marks to upper board and spine, tailcap slightly abraded, lacking the dust-jacket). Provenance: Norman Forster Wilson, Low Fell, Crosthwaite, Kendal (1869-1949; faded pencil owner inscription dated October 1937, the month after publication) – by descent to the present owner.
Artist:John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892 - 1973)
Place of origin:England
Auction house category:Printed books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
28.11.2024 – 12.12.2024
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
Buyer Premium see on Website
Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase

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