The design first appeared in the Tolkien Calendar 1979 (November) and was then reproduced in Pictures, (# 42)
It's one of the latest Trees of Amalion that Tolkien drew, dating from the 1960s, and was drawn in coloured ball-points.
It may date from the time when he was asked for a design for the cover of Tree and Leaf (December 1963-January 1964)

It looks like the design will appear stamped in colour on the cover. An excellent choice.

Yes indeed. It would seem they’ve been taking some extra effort since Father Christmas Letters to make these deluxe editions a little more umm interesting.

The deluxe edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight also had some extra gold foil stamping around the border, and the chapter titles were coloured too.

It’s not much in the way of being deluxe, as we’ve discussed before, but I surely appreciate their efforts personally.

Also, a bit tangential… I’m still holding out hope for matching deluxe HoME books. That they’ve used the Tree of Amalion for the motif here gives me hope that they could dip into Tolkien’s other art and use some heraldic devices for the HoME motifs. A fool’s hope maybe. ?

Stu wrote:

Looks basically the same colour as Beowulf. I quite liked that colour.

From the image, I presume the image on the book cover is just printed (rather than foil), like the Father Christmas Letters cover. Multiple foils would be great, but the mockup doesn't look like that is what is being portrayed (and it would be an expensive break from the past). Colour printing = cheap

Looks like it's a slightly darker purple than Beowulf...huh? Maybe, it's hard to tell with this mockup image.

Mr. Underhill wrote:

Stu wrote:

Looks basically the same colour as Beowulf. I quite liked that colour.

From the image, I presume the image on the book cover is just printed (rather than foil), like the Father Christmas Letters cover. Multiple foils would be great, but the mockup doesn't look like that is what is being portrayed (and it would be an expensive break from the past). Colour printing = cheap

Looks like it's a slightly darker purple than Beowulf...huh? Maybe, it's hard to tell with this mockup image.

The actual colour could be anything, tbh. If The Big Orange showed us anything, it is that mockups don't always match the final result.

I just ordered HC edition to be shipped to Texas.

If these weights and dims are correct, are the majority of HC heavier and taller than HMH?

Falkor wrote:

I just ordered HC edition to be shipped to Texas.

If these weights and dims are correct, are the majority of HC heavier and taller than HMH?

Yes, that's correct.

The page count of the standard HC trade edition (which I have in hand) is 464 (including front-matter and index), and the text block (excluding boards) is approximately 1.5 inches thick. I doubt that the HMCo standard trade edition will differ by much.

Any thoughts on if or when the deluxe edition might be listed on Blackwells? I've found that Blackwells uses DHL (to Texas) for the deluxe editions which I prefer because their regular shipping option usually arrives with some dust jacket damage. I'd like to order both copies together and hope they are both sent via DHL.

I would ask them and give them the ISBN number
(978-0008440572), you can contact them via the website https://blackwells.zendesk.com/hc/en-gb/requests/new

Interested to know what they say