The Hobbit — Illustrated by the Author, 2023 Deluxe Edition, Sealed

The Deluxe Author-Illustrated Hobbit

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit: Illustrated by the Author. HarperCollins, London, 2023. The deluxe slipcased edition. ISBN 978-0-00-862783-6.

This richly presented edition brings more than fifty of Tolkien’s own paintings, drawings, sketches, designs and maps into the pages of Bilbo’s adventure. The complete text is printed in two colours and is accompanied by Christopher Tolkien’s twenty-page foreword. Finished illustrations appear alongside further examples of the art through which Tolkien imagined the landscapes and inhabitants of The Hobbit.

Green Leather, Black Cloth and Original Slipcase

The volume is quarter-bound in green leather with black cloth boards, raised bands on the spine and decoration stamped in three colours of foil. The page edges are gilt, and a ribbon marker is provided. The original green cloth-covered slipcase is decorated in gold, with a circular cut-out revealing the mountain design on the book beneath. Together the book and case form a particularly attractive green-and-gold presentation.

The Additional Material

The publisher’s rear insert specifies an illustrated eighty-eight-page companion booklet, Mathoms, prepared for this deluxe edition. Its contents include a short history of the writing and publication of The Hobbit, reproductions of all six surviving pages of the earliest manuscript, Tolkien’s poem The Hoard, and material from his 1938 lecture on dragons.

The edition also includes two large fold-out reproductions of Thrór’s Map and Wilderland; a removable facsimile of Thorin’s letter to Bilbo, written in Tengwar; and a separate card reproducing Tolkien’s original dust-jacket painting, with annotations on the reverse. These additional items distinguish this deluxe presentation from the standard author-illustrated hardback.

Condition

Still sealed in clear shrink-wrap, with the publisher’s printed information insert retained at the rear. The green cloth, gold decoration and exposed spine present attractively in the photographs. Seams, folds and reflections from the wrapping are visible around the case.

The wrapping has not been opened to inspect the book, booklet or loose material individually. The contents described above follow the publisher’s insert; the individual printing number has not been examined and no first-printing claim is made. The eight photographs show this particular sealed copy and its original slipcase from all sides.

A sealed example of the deluxe Hobbit illustrated with Tolkien’s own art, in its original green cloth slipcase.

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