Strange Silmarillion 77 Clowes & Sons Export

Looking at the picture up close, I'd say there are signs of blue, and (taking into account the general condition of the top of the boards) that it is, as you suggest, very badly faded. I have a BoLTs I copy which is quite badly faded but otherwise is in great condition --similar thing going on.

That aside, as Deagol would no doubt concede, the combinations of variant points is not as definite as it would seem from booksellers listings. In Deagol & Wayne Hammond's online and published bibliographies respectively, contraction (of information presented) is inevitable.

Bare in mind that aside from the sheets themselves (with the two errors --& the assertion that these are the first state of the printed sheets) there is no proven priority of binding (cloth & paper boards; headbands; top pages dyed blue etc) for the Clowes first impressions. Forgetting the presence of a price, or not.

It can be interpreted (but it is not stated) that Wayne linked the cloth binding with the dyed pages + headbands (the latter two features he does imply are linked), as this is what is commonly observed. But Bibliography does not state this. Ditto, the paper boards with no top dye + no headbands (again the latter two features [or lack of] are stated as linked). Again, this link is not stated. Thus (assumed):-

CLOTH boards, Headbands + dye
PAPER boards, no Headbands + unstained

Again, since it is commonly observed, although Wayne states no priority is observed here, most paper board copies have one of the errors corrected & are therefore regarded as intermediate Clowes copies --sitting between the Clowes first (proper) and the Clowes-BCA variant. Thus most people regard the cloth copy as the actual Clowes "export" ("true" if you like) variant.

However, unless you can be certain that all cloth copies (regardless of other features) have both errors present, and that all paper copies have one error corrected --one cannot judge the state of the printed sheets themselves solely using these features. And, other combinations do exist. (Which is why one would be incorrect to assume anything regarding the sheets from other features present, or lacking.)

BH

Thank you very much for your explanation and the deeper insight in this matter.

I think you can also state that because of the large number of copies of this book that were bound, mistakes were also made.

I would expect that in some cases of the CLOTH boards. Headbands + dye state, the dye was not applied by mistake, this copy could be that, but it looks faded to me.

Interesting...

This site uses affiliate links for which we may be compensated

J.R.R. Tolkien The Silmarillion 1st Edition Export RARE

230630478110

Seller: nimue65

(2872)

Ended Jun 11, 2011

This item ended more than 90 days ago

No price? Must make it one of those special "export" copies!

BH

Or how about one of those printed by the "scarcer of the 2 printers"!

Tolkien-The Silmarillion-1st-hb/dj-1977-fine

A Billing copy you say? So difficult to locate; especially for UK collectors...

BH