Rare ‘The Hobbit’ First Edition Discovered in Estate Sale Sparks $57,000 Bidding Frenzy
Discovering A Rare Copy Of ‘The Hobbit’ Hidden On A Bookcase
Caitlin Riley, a rare books and works on paper specialist at the English auction house Auctioneum, was browsing an estate sale in Bristol in the spring of 2025 when a green cover caught her eye. She knew it looked like an early edition of The Hobbit, but she didn’t dare to hope it was as rare as she thought it might be.
“Nobody knew it was there,” Riley said in an Auctioneum statement. “It was just a run-of-the-mill bookcase, containing the usual reading and reference books you’d expect to find.”
AuctioneumThe book was missing its dust jacket, exposing the green cloth cover beneath.
As Riley began flipping through the book, however, she realized that it was indeed a first edition, featuring 10 black-and-white illustrations by J.R.R. Tolkien himself. While the book was missing its blue dust jacket and its spine was a bit discolored, it was otherwise in incredible condition.
“Being a children’s book, most of them have seen children’s hands, children’s coloring pens in some cases, so to have one that appears to be completely unread and never enjoyed is really, really astonishingly rare,” Riley explained to the BBC.
Just 1,500 copies of Tolkien’s The Hobbit were printed when the novel was first published in 1937, but it quickly became one of the most successful books of all time, with more than 100 million copies sold worldwide.
So, how did this particular copy end up on a bookshelf in Bristol?
The Mysterious Origins Of The Rare Book
Little is known about where the essentially untouched copy of The Hobbit came from. The estate sale where Riley found the book was overseen by an executor, and she wasn’t able to speak with any family members.
Post Comment