The Hobbit; The Lord of the Rings; The Silmarillion

TOLKIEN, J. R. R.:

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. London: Folio Society, 1979. Third printing (1999) of the 1997 reprint with a new binding. 28 × 150 × 25 mm. Pp. [1–7] 8–245 [246–248]. Type: Barbou with Libra for display. Printed and bound by the Bath Press in full red vegetable parchment (‘Elephanthide’) with a design in gold, black and green by Francis Mosley; pale grey flecked endleaves with the map in red and black. Dark red slip case. The illustrations consist of two full-page drawings (including the frontispiece) and 19 head-pieces. The endleaves reproduce Tolkien’s own drawing of ‘Thror’s Map’.

[together with]

The Lord of the Rings. London: Folio Society, 1977. Third printing (1999) of the 1997 reprint with a new binding. Type: Barbou with Libra for display. 228 × 151 × 33–42 mm. Full green vegetable parchment (‘Elephanthide’) with a design in gold, black and another colour (yellow for volume I, blue for volume II, red for volume III) by Francis Mosley; pale green endleaves with the map in green. Dark red three-volume slip case titled and decorated in gold. The illustrator, ‘Ingahild Grathmer’, was in fact Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. Tolkien had seen her sketches and been favourably impressed, so, despite his stated opposition to an illustrated edition of the trilogy, his executors were persuaded to allow this edition to proceed. The Queen’s designs were redrawn by Fraser – it is said, to their considerable improvement. Margrethe’s drawings (in Fraser’s redrawn versions) were also used in a Danish translation published in 2001. The three volumes are as follows:

• [1] J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, being the first part of the lord of the rings, illustrations by Ingahild Grathmer, drawn by Eric Fraser. Pp. [1–7] 8–459 [460–464]. The illustrations consist of four full-page drawings (including the frontispiece) and 21 head-pieces.
•  [2] J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers, being the second part of the lord of the rings, illustrations by Ingahild Grathmer, drawn by Eric Fraser. Pp. [1–9] 10–372 [373–376]. The illustrations consist of three full-page drawings (including the frontispiece) and 20 head-pieces.
• [3] J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, being the third part of the lord of the rings, illustrations by Ingahild Grathmer, drawn by Eric Fraser. Pp. [1–7] 8–487 [488]. The illustrations consist of three full-page drawings (including the frontispiece) and 16 head-pieces.
  [together with]

The Silmarillion, consisting of quenta Silmarillion (the history of the Silmarils) together with Ainulindalë (the music of the Ainur) and Valaquenta (account of the Valar), to which is appended Akallabêth (the downfall of Númenor) and of the rings of power and the third age. London: The Folio Society, 1997. First printing thus. Edited by Christopher Tolkien, illustrated by Francis Mosley. 228 × 151 × 36 mm. Pp. [1–5] 6–7 [8–13] 14–420: [1] leaf of two-colour ‘plates’ (facing p. 138) + [1] folded map. Type: Fournier with Omnia for display. Printed and bound by the Bath Press. Full blue vegetable parchment (‘Elephanthide’) with a design in gold, red and black by Mosley; pale grey flecked endleaves. Dark red-brown slip case. The 29 head-pieces and the frontispiece in the present work are in the same mood as those produced by Eric Fraser for The Hobbit. In addition, there are two maps printed in red and black, one as a ‘plate’ between pages 138 and 139, and one, a large folded ‘Map Of Beleriand And The Lands To The North’, drawn by Christopher Tolkien, tipped in at the end.

Very good copies, with only the slightest creasing to some of the spine tips, the lightest discolouration to the spine of The Hobbit, and minimal shelf-wear otherwise. In matching slipcases that are a tad shelf-worn; else fine.