LotR First Edition State Determination

ǽc ælf wrote:

Hello, based on this page from Tolkienbooks.com it appears that each impression has multiple "states," as I believe they would be called. My question is how does one determine one state from another? For example, I have a 5th impression of the UK TT of which there are three states. Are there slight differences between each or is there really no way of knowing?

https://tolkienbooks.net/php/lotr-print-runs.php

P.S. I understand that the answer to my question might lie within Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography, but alas I have yet to find a copy of that!

If there are multiple states(variants), then these are normally detailed. A good example is the 1st UK Impression of the Return of the King, https://tolkienbooks.net/php/1st-rotk.php

At this time, printers would normally print all the pages for the book at the same time, they would then be stored and sent to another company who bound the books, and as it was cheaper to store unbound books, which took up less space, this was often done in batches.

An example would be the 5th Impression of The Two Towers, as the bindings were added on three occasions. This was a common practice, and as far as I am aware it is not possible to tell on which occasion the pages were bound, the books are identical and these would not count as multiple 'states'.

And again, sometimes a different company would print the dust-jackets, these can also have different variations.

See my article on US 1st Edition Hobbits as an example of how printings and states can differ.

https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/n ... ewtopic.php?topic_id=5570

Thank you Trotter, and Mr. Underhill for the clarification. I was unaware that those different dates were for the binding, and not print batches. This makes much more sense now!