First-edition sets with well-preserved jackets and perhaps a signature or an inscription usually make the really big money where Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is concerned, but a recent Dublin sale produced something rather unusual.
This set of 1954-55 firsts of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and Return of the King is bound in black leather gilt with an ‘Eye of Sauron’ motif and Elvish inscription to the front covers. Loosley inserted is a slip of paper on which Tolkien has written: “If you would like a signature for ‘The Lord of the Rings’, you can stick this in with my good wishes. J.R.R.Tolkien 20/6/73.”