Thanks, Mark. Personally speaking, I didn't go to the 2010 Festival because I couldn't afford the £800 I'd have to find for two tickets plus four nights' accomodation.

As for 2012; the Tolkien Society is holding a special event of its own that year; 'The Ring Goes Ever On.' I shouldn't think many folk could aford two big events; but we'll see. Let's get 2011 out of the way first!

Happy New Year!

garm wrote:

As for 2012; the Tolkien Society is holding a special event of its own that year; 'The Ring Goes Ever On.' I shouldn't think many folk could afford two big events; but we'll see. Let's get 2011 out of the way first!

Happy New Year!

I agree, I don't think many Tolkien fans would be able to afford to attend both events in 2012 and garm did not mention location, it has to be more central, somewhere like Birmingham (which would allow you to use Festival in the Shire as the title without complaints), not Wales.

Happy New Year as well!

What do people think about Mark's claims on rare Tolkien items.

Rare Tolkien books remain one of the safest and consistent investments. While values rise sporadically, rarely if ever have they fallen. With the new film coming out, prices are bound to rise. Consider expanding your collection of art and books.

Do you agree?

Trotter asked:

what do people think about Mark's claims on rare Tolkien items. " Rare Tolkien books remain one of the safest and consistent investments. While values rise sporadically, rarely if ever have they fallen. With the new film coming out, prices are bound to rise. Consider expanding your collection of art and books. " Do you agree?

To be honest, as soon as I read Mark's comment, I was irked. If he was selling a financial product, the "Prices are bound to rise" statement would actually be illegal (in Australia, anyway). In truth, the whole comment is garbage - In Australian terms, I can buy books today priced in Sterling for about half the price I could a couple of years ago, so you could say that values have effectively dropped by 50% (for me) just on the currency movement alone.

Pretty much any non-biased commentator believes that the trend is most likely to be for asset prices to (continue to) fall over the coming years. People will spend what little spare money they have on food, water and power (which are all going to increase in cost massively). Precious metals (real metal, not paper metal) are IMHO a far safer investment than books. I can find you a handful of people that want a super-deluxe, but I can find you a lot of people that want gold.

Like I always say, buy books because you like them, not because they are going to make you rich or protect your wealth.

Stu

I agree with Stu - I'm not money-oriented to that degree. I buy books and art because I like them. They become a part of the collection, each with a place of its own. I don't plan on selling them; after I'm gone, the collection will be split up, and the books etc will go ack onto the market.

Back onto the market? Accept those items (those real gems we spoke of...) that you're giving to me? You did say you'd be happy giving that Silmarillion, and that other item we do not speak about publically, to me... I'm sure that's what you said...

BH

Hmm? Not me. You must be thinking of someone else.

:)

Okay, I made that up!

Mark's response

Festival in the Shire 2012 Per are last email message, we are planning it for mid-August, as before, in 2012 to fit in with the many overseas visitors coming to the 2011 Olympics. We are aware the Tolkien Society has an event same time. They had been in contact with the idea of working together, but never followed it up. We felt it would be better to work together, but no one would followup or messages so we gave up. As its holiday time and the many international visitors will be in country, the idea is to hold it just after the close of the Olympics on Monday the 13th and Tuesday 14th, possible part or all of the Wednesday 14th depending on how full the program becomes. This will allow those going on to the Tolkien Society event on the 16th some travel time. The decision to postpone this years was due to the poor global economic situation as we felt fewer people could make it if held this year. If we obtain large sponsorship or donations, we can keep the ticket prices lower and may still be able to do it this August but we doubt it. Hopefully things will improve by 2012. Festival Art and Books The main funding (and original idea) came our sister companies business in rare Tolkien books and art, including fantasy art. Help support the Festival and the artist themselves by buying some originals, prints or pencil sketches. We are please to offer original concept pencil sketches from Rodney Matthews. This is a more affordable way to collect his originals. We now have a catalogue of his wroks so pelase ask for a copy. He has over 600 so not all are shown. More will be added. Visit www.festivalartandbooks.com to see the current stock for sale as well as stock form other artists we represent. Festival Journal and Sponsors Our hope is to re-start the journal latter this year to begin profiling new Tolkien related works; academic activity, new books, original art and news in collecting. It was very costly to produce the journal and we had to discontinue when we received few subscriptions (thanks to those who did). The next journal and festival will depend on advertising sponsorships, donations and investors, While the first event was not financially successful, we have high hopes the next one will especially with the new Hobbit film imminent by then. If you have money to invest and are looking for an interesting opportunity, please contact us. Essentially we’ll be offering shares in Festival in the Shire Ltd. If you have any questions or would like to be removed from our mailing list, please email [email protected] Best wishes, Mark Faith Managing Director

Without wanting to be mean-spirited, if Mark's emails to the Tolkien Society were as poorly written as that one, I am unsurprised that they weren't followed up. Sheesh, he really needs a proof-reader.

Latest email from Mark Faith

"Festival in the Shire and Festival Art and books News

Pre-view Event

Mark your calendars for August 19-21st , 2011. We are holding a 3-day Festival preview event at the Wynnstay Arms in Machynlleth with plans for a “mini-festival” along side (if we can get additional venue space). The pre-view event will comprise and exhibition of original art and prints as well as Tolkien books, with Rene from the Tolkien Shop in Leiden bringing lots of stuff. We will have many of the artist we represent on hand. More announcements to be made. We have had offers of music, talks and fan activities if again we can sort out nearby venue space. The Wynnstay Hotel is not large enough. The pre-view exhibtion event will go ahead either way even if we don’t hold the mini-festival so plan to come and support our artists. We still plan the main Festival in the Shire for summer 2012.

Art and Book Gallery

In addition to other exhibitions planned for this spring and summer, we will have a regular exhibition of art and books most Wednesdays (market day) in the Wynnstay. Hours are approximately 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. At other times, we offer viewings of originals and limited prints in our private gallery. Please email [email protected] for an appointment.

New Artists

If you follow us on Facebook, you will have heard we now represent Roger Dean and Tim Kirk. We are in talks with several other well-known artists. We are still working on Tim’s catalogue, but you can find some of Roger’s works and signed posters on our website. For a list of Roger’s originals for sale, please ask. Although Roger is not known for his Tolkien work, he was genuinely inspired by Middle-earth, as were many people of the era. He has a Gollum painting he produced in his early days.

New Tolkien Works from Rodney Matthews

We are thrilled to offer Rodney’s latest Tolkien inspired works comprised of themes from the Hobbit. (Several of these are Smaug). He is up to five new sketches and still counting. Rodney’s sketches are completed works in all their grand detail, not vague working concepts. From these sketches, he produces the final color pieces in pen, ink, airbrush and gouache. If interested in buying the color finals you can either wait for completion or pay only half price by commissioning the final beforehand. This is a form of risk-share where if Rodney knows he has a buyer, he discounts the final price heavily.


Starving artist

At the best of times, being a fantasy artist is a risky career, even for well-known names with iconic works. In a recession, non-essentials like art expenditure are the first thing to be cut back. Our artists derive most of their income from being artist and are feeling the spending cuts heavily right now. We only earn a small commission on sales and the artist gets the rest. Buying fantasy art supports the artist, but also the genre fantasy or what is sometimes called neo-surrealism. I personally find much modern art a joke; not art at all, but fad and fashion. Fantasy art in my opinion is art you can truly enjoy, over an over. If you do not support fantasy art by buying originals or prints, the artist cannot make a living and will find other pursuits. At the very least, they stop producing new fantasy work and pursue other art interests. If this continues, there will be no new art and he genre will die out for lack of support. Help support our artist, buy something today! See the attached and visit- http://www.festivalartandbooks.com/ to see photos. Under the search field on the website just type in the artist name as “author”. If you would like a color catalogue of these artists, please ask. For being on our mailing list, please take 10% off the prices shown.

Best wishes,

Mark"