Dye Colour 1978 1st Impression 4th Edition UK Hobbit

My 78 printing is blue.
79 and 82 are green.

It's blue on my 1st printing, 1978.

I have spotted a copy on ebay at the moment and that looks blue as well

eBay Item #251876976071

It looks like the printer (William Clowes) used the wrong colour dye, probably the dye that they were to use for The Silmarillion as they were printing this as well in 1977/1978.

Christina and I have looked at our two copies of the first printing of this edition and at my working papers for the Descriptive Bibliography. My description of the top edge staining as "dark green" came originally from Douglas Anderson, based on his copy of the book, but when looking at other copies, including Christina's and the one at the British Library, I evidently found them to match.

Color descriptions of course are subjective, based on one's eyes, lighting, and condition of the item, which is why it's good to have a number of copies to physically compare. One of our copies, which has stood on a shelf for many years among other single copies of The Hobbit, has a top edge which is clearly blue, but also clearly faded. This may be due to light (room lighting, at least), or to dust which can cause chemical change; also, some dyes are more prone to fading than others.

The other copy we have, however, is part of the boxed set The Tolkien Library, has never been read, and has been protected all these years from both light and dust within a heavy slipcase. On this copy, the top edge is stained dark green - with a distinct blue element, to be sure, evident as one turns the book in the light, but then green = blue + yellow so this is to be expected.

I also compared these copies with copies of The Silmarillion, and to me the blue (or apparent blue) stains are of different values. Again, this could be subjective.

It's possible, of course, that some copies of the 1978 first impression were stained dark green, which would make sense, given its green cloth binding, while others were stained a dark blue. In any case, it's an interesting point.

Wayne