Houghton Mifflin publication of The Hobbit, 1938.

Definitely not a 1st state, as it has the flautist on the title page. The binding looks like it could be a pretty light tan weave, but it's hard to tell based on the lighting of that photograph. Would need to see page 118 to know more.

It's a library (or home project) rebind, that much is certain. Could be of a 2nd state or a 4 A,B, or C state, but again hard to tell with the lighting.

Mr Underhill, Pg 118 kind sir. I'm a dealer, so yes I would be interested in selling it. Some of my other Tolkien related items are at my Abebooks site. Sherwood Frazier Books, there are many items I do not have cataloged nor show up at Abebooks. If you have an interest in specific Tolkien items please send me a list and I'll look thru my boxes that are not yet cataloged.

https://affiliates.abebooks.com/c/9724 ... 6xdesc%3Doff%26xpod%3Doff

Sherwood

megli wrote:

Mr Underhill, Pg 118 kind sir. I'm a dealer, so yes I would be interested in selling it. Some of my other Tolkien related items are at my Abebooks site. Sherwood Frazier Books, there are many items I do not have cataloged nor show up at Abebooks. If you have an interest in specific Tolkien items please send me a list and I'll look thru my boxes that are not yet cataloged.

Sherwood

Chapter VII is correctly labeled so that rules out 2nd State. Best guess is it's a 4th state from the 1940's as the binding on the spine looks to resemble the 4th state bind color.

As Mr. Underhill presented, it is definitely a later state. It could have been a library rebind where they saved the spine. Often though you would find library markings…since you didn’t mention any and I don’t see anything on the spine this could be a simple rebind to replace damaged boards. These books also had paste down maps on the inner front and rear boards…did they salvage the maps by chance?

Also, the attached image has examples of other 1938 Hobbit rebinds…mostly for libraries.