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Tolkien (J.R.R.) Farmer Giles of Ham, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author "with best wishes from J.R.R. Tolkien. Christmas, 1949" to front free endpaper with ink inscription below in another hand in Gaelic, illustrations by Pauline Diana Baynes, occasional marginal foxing, light browning to endpapers, original cloth, toning to head, dust-jacket, price-clipped, short nick to foot of lower panel, very light surface soiling but near-fine generally, [Hammond & Anderson A4a], 8vo, 1949.

⁂ Inscribed to Professor Diarmaid Murphy who has added his inscription in Gaelic to the endpaper. Tolkien served as an external examiner at the University of Galway for 1949, 1950, 1954 and 1959, where Murphy was lecturing in English and both men are listed as examiners on the examination papers for those years.

Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Lord of the Rings, 3 vol., comprising The Fellowship of the Ring, third impression, jacket with some spotting to panels, light toning to spine, small patch of red staining to head of rear panel, 1955; The Two Towers, second impression, jacket with light browning to spine tips, 1955; The Return of the King, first impression, jacket with light toning and creasing to spine tips, sliver of marking to margins of flaps, 1955, first editions, folding maps, some spotting or browning to endpapers along with some tape-marking, original cloth, dust-jackets, bright and excellent or near-fine overall, 8vo.

Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression, map endpapers, illustrations, frontispiece and 3 colour plates, light toning to endpapers and splitting from upper edge of flyleaf, upper hinge cracked at half-title, spotting throughout but very faint and occasional, pp.15/16 loose, original cloth, slight shelf-lean, light surface toning and discolouring, cloth splitting along upper joint and some edges, repairs to spine ends, preserved in facsimile jacket, [Hammond A3a], 8vo, 1937 [but 1938].

⁂ The second impression was the first version of the book to be illustrated in colour: the first impression had two plates only, both of which were uncoloured. A total of 2,300 copies were printed, and some 400 held at the binder's London warehouse were destroyed during the Blitz in November 1940.

Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Lord of the Rings, 3 vol., comprising The Fellowship of the Ring, second impression, half-title spotted, the odd faint spot, some light staining to inner margins, short tear to spine head, 1954; The Two Towers, first impression, occasional light spotting, 1954; The Return of the King, first impression, without signature mark "4" and text block straight on p.49, some light staining to inner margins, very faint spotting along board fore-edge, 1955, first editions, folding maps, last leaf or two foxed at margins, endpapers foxed, book-labels to front pastedowns, edges spotted, original cloth, spine ends lightly bumped, spines faded, a few small stains, board fore-edges nibbled with some loss, otherwise excellent, 8vo.

Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Lord of the Rings, single volume edition, reprint, signed by the author on front pastedown, original pictorial wrappers, spine ends bumped with head slightly frayed, otherwise clean and bright, 8vo, 1972.

⁂ In January 1972, while studying at Merton College, Oxford, the consignor's father was asked to give up his room for Professor Tolkien who had been offered a room after his wife's death and needed to be on the ground floor as the elderly author could no longer manage stairs. Tolkien was appreciative and the two often met at lunch throughout 1972. When this impression of Lord of the Rings was published in Spring of that year, he bought a copy from Blackwells. At lunch he asked Tolkien to sign it for his girlfriend and, though Tolkien was grumpy because the royalties on paperbacks were less than hardbacks, the author agreed to sign it - just for him. Tolkien passed away the following year.