Lot 12
Tolkien, J. R. R.
The Lord of the Rings
Auction: 16 June 2026 from 10:00 BST
Description
[thus titled on slipcase, the set comprising:] The Lord of the Rings; The Two Towers; The Return of the King. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1963 [i.e. 1964]. First ‘deluxe’ edition (the text in first edition, thirteenth, tenth and tenth impressions), 3 volumes, 8vo, original black cloth over bevelled boards, spines lettered in gilt, all edges gilt, 423, 352, 416 pp., folding map to rear of each volume, bound-in silk page markers, Fellowship with full-page map ('A Part of the Shire') and full-page illustration of the Gate of Moria, both counted in pagination and register, housed in the original pictorial slipcase designed by Pauline Baynes. Some pale mottling to cloth, Fellowship spine lettering faded, folding map detached, small closed tear in upper margin of pp. 67/8 [Hammond p. 98 refers];
together with a copy of J. R. R. Tolkien's Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, read 25th November 1936 (apparently a later edition, c.1950?), 8vo, wire-stitched in original card wrappers, 51 pp., wrappers toned along spine and edges, a few spots (2)
Footnote
Possibly issued to commemorate the tenth anniversary of The Fellowship of the Ring, this edition is mentioned briefly by Hammond in his bibliography of Tolkien: ‘In 1964 a deluxe set, printed 1963, the three volumes bound in black cloth with ribbon markers, was issued in a slipcase featuring a colour illustration by Pauline Baynes, a ’triptyc’ view of Middle-earth’. 1,000 copies is often cited as the number issued.