First edition Hobbit book found during Bristol house clearance to fetch thousands

BristolWorld

A 'Holy Grail' first edition of The Hobbit is set to sell for thousands at auction - after being discovered during a routine house clearance.  The copy of J. R. R. Tolkien’s 1937 work was discovered tucked deep into an old bookcase at a home in Bristol.  It is one of only 1,500 copies initially printed in September 1937.   Such was its popularity that within weeks all copies had been sold and a second printing was undertaken.

Transcript

00:00My name is Caitlin and I'm the Books and Works on Paper Specialist here at Auctionium.

00:03We picked this up during a routine house clearance just locally in Somerset.

00:07It's a true first edition, first impression of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit,

00:12an absolute masterpiece of 20th century fantasy literature,

00:15pretty much inspired most of all fantasy writers of the modern day.

00:19First edition, first impression is more uncommon because there were only 1,500 produced,

00:24of which this is one.

00:25It's never been to sell before, so it's on the auction market for the first time.

00:29It was in a property, they had loads and loads of books on all manner of things,

00:32veterinary books, reference books, art reference books, folio society books,

00:37but this was the only gem.

00:39Strangely enough, they also had a second edition of The Lord of the Rings,

00:42but this was just sat on a shelf, clearly had been for a really long time,

00:46never to market, never seen before.

00:48We believe that the deceased estate was the great niece of a famous Arctic explorer,

00:55who in the mid-century was quite friendly with C.S. Lewis and had lots of links to Oxford,

01:00so we kind of believe that he probably knew Tolkien as well,

01:04which is how they came to acquire this one.

01:06Without the dust jacket, as they usually are, I think less than 50, it's believed, survived.

01:10So, but this one's in particularly lovely, clean condition.

01:13Nobody seems to ever have read it.

01:15You never see them looking so shiny and bright.

01:17So, the sale is going to be finishing from 8pm on the 6th of August,

01:22and it's carrying a sale estimate of £10,000 to £12,000.

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