Tolkien, J. R. R.
[The Lord of the Rings:]
Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000
Auction: 18 June 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
The Fellowship of the Ring; The Two Towers; The Return of the King. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1954-5. 3 volumes, 8vo, 423, 352, 416 pp., original red cloth, top edges dyed red, folding map to rear of each volume, Fellowship of the Ring with map' ‘A Part of the Shire’ to p. 25 (slightly marked), with the ownership inscriptions ‘G C Darlaston, October 1954’, ‘GCD 1954’ and ‘G.C.D. 1955' to front free endpaper of each respective volume, profuse annotations in the same hand to the final page, rear free endpaper, rear pastedown, and verso of the folding map in each volume, and to the front free endpaper and initial blank of Return of the King, comprising indexes of characters and places of Middle-earth and notes on the chronology of The Lord of the Rings. Spines rolled and faded, tips bumped and worn, various markings to cloth, tips bumped and worn, a few scattered spots and marks to contents, Fellowship with cloth split along rear joint, Fellowship pp. 417/18 loose, old tape-repair along gutter between final leaf and rear free endpaper, Fellowship and Two Towers with a few marginal markings in pen or pencil, Two Towers additionally with gift inscription to front free endpaper [Hammond & Anderson A5 a.i-iii] (3)
Footnote
First editions, first impressions, each volume respectively one of 3,000, 3,250 and 7,000 copies only, this set containing striking evidence of a contemporary reader's absorption in the people and places of Middle-earth in the form of detailed annotations by one G. C. (George Child) Darlaston (1907-1972), a master at Bromsgrove School in Tolkien's home county of Worcestershire, who in the 1930s published a two-part history textbook titled Men and Movements in European History.