When The New York Times reported on a rare 1937 first edition of The Hobbit coming to auction in Bristol, they contacted Oliver Bayliss of Bayliss Rare Books for expert commentary, as an expert in Tolkien first editions.
First editions of The Hobbit have appeared at auction before and can achieve impressive prices. One copy, inscribed by Tolkien to a student, sold for £137,000 in 2015, while another realised £60,000. However, few survive in such good condition as the Bristol copy. Oliver estimated it could fetch over £50,000 (he was right — with buyer’s premium it sold for just over £50,000), noting that most surviving examples have “been through it all — missing pages, kids’ doodles from when it was left on the kitchen table, maybe even a trip through the washing machine once or twice.”
This copy is a “fresh-to-market” example, an increasingly rare occurrence in modern book collecting. As Oliver put it, “As rare as Smaug’s treasure, frankly.”
You can read the full article on The New York Times website here.
