The Hobbit and other Stories

As a collector of Uk Hobbits, I have always been very interested in the Unwin Books/Unwin Paperbacks box-set The Hobbit and Other Stories.



Variants

I think that there are three variants of this box-set but could be more as the books could have been mixed up.




Variant 1

The Hobbit - Reset (New Edition) 1975 (Unwin Books on front cover)
Tree and Leaf, Smith of Wootton Major, The Homecoming of Beothtnoth - 1st Edition 1975 (Unwin Books on front cover)
Farmer Giles of Ham, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil - 1st Edition 1975 (Unwin Books on front cover)

Variant 2

The Hobbit - Reset (New Edition), 2nd Impression 1976 (First State) (Unwin Paperbacks on front cover)
Tree and Leaf, Smith of Wootton Major, The Homecoming of Beothtnoth - 1st Edition 1975 (Unwin Books on front cover)
Farmer Giles of Ham, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil - 1st Edition 1975 (Unwin Books on front cover)

Variant 3

The Hobbit Reset (New Edition), 2nd-4th Impression 1976 (Second State) (Unwin Paperbacks on front cover)
Tree and Leaf, Smith of Wootton Major, The Homecoming of Beothtnoth - 2nd Impression 1977 (Unwin Paperbacks on front cover)
Farmer Giles of Ham, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil - 2nd Impression 1977 (Unwin Paperbacks on front cover)

I'm sure though that these sets could have been mixed up, whatever copies were at hand were possibly put into the box-sets, so other original variants could exist from the Publisher.

These are the covers of The Hobbit.



These are the covers of the other two books.



Box-set covering

In a 2016 forum post on this site, Berelach, talks about the covering of the box-set

I've noticed that some of the Unwin Paperback slipcases used in the 1970s were made of different materials. Specifically I've noticed that the 1976 'Hobbit and Other Stories' and 1976 'The Lord of the Rings' slipcases have two different versions... one with paper covering and one with a more glossy or even laminated covering

https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/n ... ewtopic.php?post_id=16560



All three of my sets are paper-covered, though with slightly different paper, which does affect the gloss of the box.

I think this is definitely an area that more needs more examples to see if any patterns exist and whether you can tie the difference in the box-set to the different variants.

Pricing

Only one of my sets has a price on it, £3.25 though the books are all priced at £1 each, does anyone else have priced copies that have a different price?

For further details on the box-set see Tolkienbooks.net https://tolkienbooks.net/php/details2.php?id=1239 and J.R.R. Tolkien A Descriptive Bibliography by Wayne G. Hammond & Douglas A. Anderson (Oak Knoll Books)