Nothing crazy valuable here (though we don't know what's in the envelope on top or what the pamphlet is between copies of Tolkien's Gown). It is unusual to see so many copies of the descriptive bibliography and West's annotated checklist all in one place. Collectively the shelf adds up to a nice amount of cash if you were to sell each volume individually, but obviously a drop in the bucket compared to the value of items shown in previous photos.
It contained a note from 1995 for “sketched commissioned art?” from a someone named Donna Nasmith who’s husband is Ted, who does Tolkien Calendar's. The art is xeroxed but just looks printed and insignificant. Most expensive thing about it is the printer ink itself. Some of the prices look expensive which makes no sense. Maybe my Father was getting scammed or something?🤷🏽♂️
onthetrail wrote:
I am wondering, what is in the envelope?
He had 5 copies of J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography, those alone are worth a few hundred dollars. It is honestly amazing how deep the collection goes.
TolkienBookBoy68 wrote:
It contained a note from 1995 for “sketched commissioned art?” from a someone named Donna Nasmith who’s husband is Ted, who does Tolkien Calendar's. The art is xeroxed but just looks printed and insignificant. Most expensive thing about it is the printer ink itself. Some of the prices look expensive which makes no sense. Maybe my Father was getting scammed or something?🤷🏽♂️onthetrail wrote:
I am wondering, what is in the envelope?
He had 5 copies of J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography, those alone are worth a few hundred dollars. It is honestly amazing how deep the collection goes.
He certainly would not be getting scammed by Ted Nasmith. Commissioned art is very expensive, and time consuming for the artist so they pirce accordingly. The Xeroxed art will have been for feedback and/or revision.
I know there is a great love for John Howe in the fandom as the 'definitive' visualiser of Tolkien's world, but for me Ted Nasmith was always my number one in regards to visualising Tolkien's world.
I agree that (for me) Nasmith seems to better capture the tone/spirit of the books through his style/color palette. That is not to say anything bad about Lee, Howe, or any of the other Tolkien artists. Their artwork is quite beautiful as well.
I'd assume one of the copies of Letters is the corrected version and the other is uncorrected. I can't see any reason to have two, otherwise. The ones without the page stub fix are less common.
onthetrail wrote:
TolkienBookBoy68 wrote:
It contained a note from 1995 for “sketched commissioned art?” from a someone named Donna Nasmith who’s husband is Ted, who does Tolkien Calendar's. The art is xeroxed but just looks printed and insignificant. Most expensive thing about it is the printer ink itself. Some of the prices look expensive which makes no sense. Maybe my Father was getting scammed or something?🤷🏽♂️onthetrail wrote:
I am wondering, what is in the envelope?
He had 5 copies of J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography, those alone are worth a few hundred dollars. It is honestly amazing how deep the collection goes.
He certainly would not be getting scammed by Ted Nasmith. Commissioned art is very expensive, and time consuming for the artist so they pirce accordingly. The Xeroxed art will have been for feedback and/or revision.
This brings up another question. Is there any artwork in the collection? If there are commission proofs in that envelope, was the commission ever realised? Or are there other pieces of art you would want to sell/liquidate? The Market - and the values - are entirely different from printed works.
Tuor son of Huor wrote:
Nothing crazy valuable here (though we don't know what's in the envelope on top or what the pamphlet is between copies of Tolkien's Gown). It is unusual to see so many copies of the descriptive bibliography and West's annotated checklist all in one place. Collectively the shelf adds up to a nice amount of cash if you were to sell each volume individually, but obviously a drop in the bucket compared to the value of items shown in previous photos.
Just took a dive into the 6 volumes on the left side and there's about $750 there. The L'Engles aren't such a big deal, although I would guess they are 1st editions, but the set is incomplete. Meanwhile, the Easton Press leather bound and signed Kurt Vonneguts are about $300 each, depending on the market.
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