Signed, First-Edition ‘Hobbit’ on ‘Antiques Roadshow’

I'd have to question the valuation, £50,000 for a signed Hobbit, you are not going to get this today, a Swiss purchaser vastly inflated these prices in recent years, but they were association copies.

Can anyone who sees this item, let us know the provenance of the item?

I believe this value to be correct and having sold several (similar) books in the last 6 months I can tell you this is an accurate estimate! Inflation by one Swiss purchaser had nothing to do with that... There is a high demand and VERY FEW signed copies available, by the way in this condition it is extremely RARE! Why are you so surprised?

I can find at least 4 persons who will buy this book right away at this estimate!

Because most countries are an a depression at the moment and book prices are being hit, they are not essential purchases.

Also we have not seen any details of condition of this item (it would have to be in immaculate condition to get these prices) or anything related to provenance as yet.

It is because of the depression that the demand for the truly unique items has only increased! Surely the market of scarce book is slow and almost completely sleeping, but at the top there is a lot going on. Sadly for most collectors this trade is completely done outside the open market. I'll have to somehow list some of the treasures that have switched hands in the last months and you will be surprised to see how well the Tolkien market is actually doing on the high end collectors market.

Beren, I'd love to see that list when you can find the time / energy.

- wellinghall

First trying to find some time to write some articles for TL... but let me see what I can do. I have all info on file so might be able to get this done real soon.

>I can find at least 4 persons who will buy this book right away at this estimate!

One word: "Tulips".

I guess perhaps that there are enough uber-rich "money-no-object" types to support this market for the very rare items. The modern art world had a massive bubble-burst a couple of years ago, I believe, and I think any market that has lost sanity will generally correct in the end. I hope that this one does as it benefits no one.

50,000 pounds for a book from 1937 (i.e. fairly recent) is just crazy, signed or otherwise. I guess there are always going to be the "elites" out there for whom this is chump change (and they can always get more cash by squeezing the masses a little more if prices go down)

Vive la revolucion.

Stu.

It is crazy indeed to see people pay such an amount for any book and I know it can make some collectors dream shatter, but I can already tell you now that the real crazy sales (like in 2002) will happen again real soon...

Hope you sort of enjoy the ride when the top pieces will hit the market, of course I will once again wish to own every single one of them, but it will be out of my league. Still I will try and enjoy the show!

I must admit, I probably wouldn't classify myself as being someone whose "dreams are shattered" by such high prices. I guess I *could* pay 50,000 for a Hobbit if I really wanted to, but the truth is that I personally wouldn't pay 5000 for a copy, never mind 50,000 (other than to quickly on-sell for a fast buck, I suppose).

I do undoubtedly enjoy my (fairly small) book collection, but there is nothing at all worth more than about 500 pounds (and most much less than that). I tend to think that if a book costs more than a day or two's earnings, I probably won't enjoy it enough relative to how much I didn't enjoy earning the money! And I really don't enjoy earning money.

I don't buy into the global recession/depression having a positive effect on the "high-end" book prices. Art has not traditionally done well under such circumstances. Fiat currency probably isn't going to do well, either, mind.

I really look forward to the facsimile edition that comes out next year, though. More my price bracket, I think…!