Signed book: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. Third edition, first impression (sixteenth impression overall). London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1966. Hardcover bound in the publisher's original green cloth boards (lettered and decorated in blue), with original pictorial dust jacket, 5.25 x 7.5, 317 pages, featuring pictorial map endpapers, color frontispiece depicting Hobbiton, plus three other color plates ('Rivendell'; 'Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-elves'; 'Conversation with Smaug'). Beautifully signed and inscribed on the title page in fountain pen, "For Mr. I. Chambers, J. R. R. Tolkien." The personal bookplate of noteworthy bookseller Ivan Chambers, O.B.E., is affixed opposite the half-title. Autographic condition: very fine. Book condition: VG+/VG, with mottled foxing on the top edge of the textblock, minor fading to the book's spine, and the jacket's spine toned. Housed in a handsome custom-made quarter-leather clamshell case, gilt-lettered on the spine.
The recipient, Ivan Chambers, began his bookselling career at W.J. Bryce's bookshop in Holborn, London; the shop soon moved to Museum Street, in a building belonging to Tolkien's publisher, Stanley Unwin, and Chambers stayed there until his retirement as the store's managing director in 1971. Active in the book trade, Chambers served as an executive on the National Book Council and as chairman of the London branch of the Booksellers Association. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography notes: 'The success of Tolkien's writing, as well as his subsequent fanatical worldwide readership, was due in no small part to the author–publisher relationship that existed between Tolkien, Stanley Unwin, and later [Stanley's son] Rayner Unwin.' Considering Chambers' proximity to the Unwin and his long-term activity in the book trade, he certainly played a part in the enduring success of Tolkien's novels.
This item is Pre-Certified by PSA/DNA
Buy a third-party letter of authenticity for
$100.00
*This item has been pre-certified by a trusted third-party authentication service, and by placing a bid on this item, you agree to accept the opinion of this authentication service. If you wish to have an opinion rendered by a different authenticator of your choosing, you must do so prior to your placing of any bid. RR Auction is not responsible for differing opinions submitted 30 days after the date of the sale.
