Tolkien, J.R.R. (1954) ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ The first volume of The Lord of the Rings, UK first edition

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1954) ‘The Fellowship of the Ring‘, UK first edition, first impression, published by George Allen & Unwin. This is the scarce first volume of the seminal ‘The Lord of the Rings‘ (1954-55) saga, one of only 3,000 copies printed by Jarrold and Sons.

Condition: a good copy with the previous owner’s name and date March 1955 written in ink on the ffep. Ghosting to the endpapers. The boards retain the original crimson colour and are rubbed at the edges. The redish top stain is present bar a ssmall area where is has bleached as shown. The spine retains the gild lettering a little dulled only. The page block is clean and internally there is absolutely no foxing whatsoever which is rare even for fine copies. The original first state map is present and attached at the rear as callsed for. There is a tiny area of tape ghosting as shown. The original dust jacket is missing. We provide a facsimile wrapper which presents the book on the shelf accordingly whilst also protecting the boards.

We have seen more battered copies at auction selling for more than our asking price.