A first edition of The Hobbit is set to sell for thousands at auction – after being discovered during a routine house clearance.
The copy of JRR Tolkien’s 1937 book was discovered on a bookcase at a home in Bristol. It is one of only 1,500 copies initially printed in September 1937.
It is expected to fetch more than £10,000 when it goes under the hammer at Auctioneum in Bath on 6 August.
Caitlin Riley, book specialist at the Auctioneum, said: “It’s always been highly collectible. For nobody to have in the last 60 years noticed, it blows my mind. It was such a huge surprise for us to find.”