The Hobbit book found during house clearance sells for £43k

Yahoo

3 days ago

A rare first edition of The Hobbit, unearthed during a standard house clearance, has fetched a staggering £43K.
The 1937 copy of J. R. R. Tolkien's masterpiece was found nestled deep within an old bookshelf in a Bristol residence.
This particular edition is one of the mere 1,500 copies initially printed in September 1937.
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Such was the demand for the book that within weeks all copies had been snapped up, necessitating a second print run.
The remaining books from this initial batch are now regarded as some of the most coveted in contemporary literature.
Originally estimated to bring in 10K, it ended up selling for £43,000 at auction after attracting hundreds of bidders worldwide.
The fortunate winner was a private collector based here in the UK.
"The amount of interest in this special book has been monumental," shares book specialist Caitlin Riley from Auctioneum Ltd.
"Within days of it going online we'd attracted interest from America, Canada, Norway and Australia. It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks."
This result is phenomenal. It's surpassed every expectation, and sets a new bar for the early first editions.
"To think that just a few weeks ago this book was sat undiscovered on a bookshelf in a Bristol house, and has gone on to make headlines around the world, is quite incredible."
If we hadn't had been asked to look around the house, it could have so easily ended up in the bin. ".
The book originated from the family library of Hubert Priestley, a renowned botanist in the 1930s and sibling to Antarctic explorer and geologist Sir Raymond Edward Priestley.
Priestley had significant ties with the University of Oxford, where Tolkien held the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon and was a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford.
Both men corresponded with fellow author C.S. Lewis, suggesting they likely knew each other.
''It's the connection to Tolkien and the important provenance that makes this book so special. It's not just any first edition; it belonged to someone who very likely called Tolkien an acquaintance'' Caitlin points out.