Rare first edition of 'The Hobbit' set for auction sale
The book is one of 1,500 original copies of the British author's seminal fantasy novel that were published in 1937.
Of those only "a few hundred are believed to still remain", according to auction house Auctioneum, which discovered the book on an old bookcase at a home in Bristol.
"The surviving books from the initial print run are now considered some of the most sought-after books in modern literature," Auctioneum said in a statement.
Bidding, which ends at 2000 GMT on Wednesday, reached £23,000 ($30,000) by late morning.
Auctioneum unearthed the book during a routine house clearance after its owner passed away.
"Nobody knew it was there," said Auctioneum rare books specialist Caitlin Riley. "It was just a run-of-the-mill bookcase."
"It was clearly an early Hobbit at first glance, so I just pulled it out and began to flick through it, never expecting it to be a true first edition," said Riley.
"I couldn't believe my eyes," the specialist added, calling it an "unimaginably rare find".
The copy is bound in light green cloth and features rare black-and-white illustrations by Tolkien, who created his beloved Middle Earth universe while he was a professor at the University of Oxford.
The book was passed down in the family library of Hubert Priestley, a botanist connected to the university.
"It is likely that both men knew each other," according to Auctioneum, which said Priestley and Tolkien shared mutual correspondence with author C.S. Lewis, who was also at Oxford.
"The Hobbit", which was followed by the epic series "The Lord of the Rings", has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide.
The beloved sagas were turned into a hit movie franchise in the 2000s.
A first edition of "The Hobbit" with a handwritten note in Elvish by the author sold for £137,000 at Sotheby's in June 2015. —AFP
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