wheresrob wrote:

I've found most 1st printings differ slightly in feel and colour. Eg perilous and unfinished. (Sigurd variation is UK vs US)

Does this mean that there might be three cover colors for the Hobbit (2004)? A brighter green (Hong Kong), a darker green (Italy), and a bluish one like I see on MyTolkienBooks.com? Perhaps the bluish one is the first print?

Sure:HK left, IT right.

Haha, if there's a blue one out there sign me up.

Can you all look to see if there on the published works of Tolkien page, if the last posthumous title is Roverandom please? Surely later printings even if they indicate it’s a first, will have further titles?

The colors do very for many of the volumes that have been in print for some time. Chalk it up to a variety of factors, like printers used, materials on hand, QC efforts and the like.

For example if you have a 1st Print S&G it's going to be a much darker shade of brown than a reprint which is a lighter shade of brown. There's also a much lighter shade variant of UT (almost matching the shade of TFPR) that was done for the 3rd printing. I can snap a couple of pics when I get home this afternoon(my time).

So it seems the printing history of the Hobbit Deluxe Edition (2004) is becoming more complex as reprints increase:
- 1st print by L.E.G.O Italy (dark green tint, quarter 'faux' leather textured paper on the spine)
- 2nd print to ? by Printing Express Hong Kong (Saturated Grass green tint, quarter 'faux' leather textured paper on the spine)
- ? print to ? by RR Donnelly China (Saturated Grass green tint, quarter 'faux' leather textured paper on the spine)
- ? print to ? (at least 11th printing) back to L.E.G.O it seems (Dark green tint, non textured paper on spine)
- After 11th printing : Rotolito Italy (Dark 'military' green tint, non textured paper on spine). This printing restarted printing history claiming to be a first printing, which is not true. (copyright page states : 'Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2004' followed by a 'I' (Roman Capitals).

Emilien wrote:

So it seems the printing history of the Hobbit Deluxe Edition (2004) is becoming more complex:
- 1st print by L.E.G.O Italy (dark green tint, quarter 'faux' leather textured paper on the spine)
- 2nd print to ? by Printing Express Hong Kong (Saturated Grass green tint, quarter 'faux' leather textured paper on the spine)
- ? print to ? by RR Donnelly China (Saturated Grass green tint, quarter 'faux' leather textured paper on the spine)
- ? print to ? (at least 11th printing) back to L.EG.O it seems (Dark green tint, non textured paper on spine)
- After 11th printing : Rotolito Italy (Dark 'military' green tint, non textured paper on spine). This printing restarted printing history claiming to be a first printing, which is not true. (Printed by HarperCollinsPublishers 2004 followed by a 'I' (Roman Capitals).

Yes, I think it is interesting and a lot of the HC "deluxe" volumes especially the ones that have been in print this long (19 yrs for H & LOTR) will have complex printing histories (a couple or several variants) like this. Would be a fun rabbit hole to go down to try and decipher and track them all down.

Mr. Underhill wrote:

Emilien wrote:

So it seems the printing history of the Hobbit Deluxe Edition (2004) is becoming more complex:
- 1st print by L.E.G.O Italy (dark green tint, quarter 'faux' leather textured paper on the spine)
- 2nd print to ? by Printing Express Hong Kong (Saturated Grass green tint, quarter 'faux' leather textured paper on the spine)
- ? print to ? by RR Donnelly China (Saturated Grass green tint, quarter 'faux' leather textured paper on the spine)
- ? print to ? (at least 11th printing) back to L.EG.O it seems (Dark green tint, non textured paper on spine)
- After 11th printing : Rotolito Italy (Dark 'military' green tint, non textured paper on spine). This printing restarted printing history claiming to be a first printing, which is not true. (Printed by HarperCollinsPublishers 2004 followed by a 'I' (Roman Capitals).

Yes, I think it is interesting and a lot of the HC "deluxe" volumes especially the ones that have been in print this long (19 yrs for H & LOTR) will have complex printing histories (a couple or several variants) like this. Would be a fun rabbit hole to go down to try and decipher and track them all down.

This is simply wonderful! I'm glad I asked a worthwhile question. Maybe later everyone could uploads their own 2004 Hobbit cover and printed info page here, and we could find more clues.

Well, I've definitely got a blue deluxe Hobbit - its just the French one! The UK one is L.E.G.O. The other more green one I haven't yet taken out of the cellophane from whenever I got the 5-vol deluxe (when it came out a few years ago).

Roccondil wrote:

Well, I've definitely got a blue deluxe Hobbit - its just the French one! The UK one is L.E.G.O. The other more green one I haven't yet taken out of the cellophane from whenever I got the 5-vol deluxe (when it came out a few years ago).

C`est magnifique! It seems that there is an English version that is also blue. Looking forward to more people sharing information about their the hobbit 2004.

The "bluish" I believe is just a dark green one, the photo has dull colours.

Mine is a dark green LEGO 11th (II is 11 not a roman number, that is the number 1 in that font).