{"id":284654,"date":"2025-07-23T07:43:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T07:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/284654\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T07:43:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T07:43:15","slug":"first-edition-hobbit-book-found-during-bristol-house-clearance-to-fetch-thousands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/284654\/","title":{"rendered":"First edition Hobbit book found during Bristol house clearance to fetch thousands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Only 1,500 copies were printed<\/p>\n

08:36, 23 Jul 2025Updated 08:36, 23 Jul 2025<\/p>\n

\"ABook specialist Caitlin Riley with The Hobbit<\/p>\n

A ‘Holy Grail’ first edition of The Hobbit is set to sell for thousands at auction – after being discovered during a routine house clearance. The copy of J. R. R. Tolkien’s 1937 work was discovered tucked deep into an old bookcase at a home in Bristol. It is one of only 1,500 copies initially printed in September 1937.<\/p>\n

Such was its popularity that within weeks all copies had been sold and a second printing was undertaken.<\/p>\n

The surviving books from the initial print run are now considered some of the most sought-after in modern literature.<\/p>\n

It’s expected to fetch over \u00a310,000 when it is sold by Auctioneum Ltd., an auction house in Bristol and Bath<\/a>, later this month.<\/p>\n

The auctioneers said the original owner had passed away and they had been called in to assess the contents.<\/p>\n

\"AInside the first edition<\/p>\n

Book specialist Caitlin Riley said: “Nobody knew it was there. It was just a run-of-the-mill bookcase, containing the usual reading and reference books you’d expect to find.<\/p>\n

“It was clearly an early Hobbit at first glance, so I just pulled it out and began to flick through it, never expecting it to be a true first edition.”<\/p>\n

Caitlin added: “I couldn’t believe my eyes. There are a few key details to look out for when spotting one of the first editions, and as I looked into each one, they were all there.<\/p>\n

“When I realised what it was, my heart began pounding. It’s an unimaginably rare find.”<\/p>\n

The book had come from the family library of Hubert Priestley, a famous botanist in the 1930s, and brother to Antarctic explorer and geologist Sir Raymond Edward Priestley.<\/p>\n

Priestley had strong connections to the University of Oxford where Tolkien was the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford.<\/p>\n

\"AThe publishing date<\/p>\n

Both shared mutual correspondence with fellow author C.S. Lewis, and it is likely that both men knew each other.<\/p>\n

The first edition is bound in light green cloth and features black and white illustrations by the author; the only printing to do so, as later editions colourised them.<\/p>\n

“The popularity of The Hobbit has only grown since its first publication,” adds Caitlin.<\/p>\n

“The book was published to huge critical acclaim, and is one of the best-selling stories of all time.<\/p>\n

“The subsequent Hobbit film series in the mid-2000’s only further cemented its appeal, and brought the tale to a whole new audience.<\/p>\n

“We’re expecting world-wide demand for this rare first edition.”<\/p>\n

First edition, first impressions of The Hobbit rarely come up for auction. Out of the 1,500 printed, only a few hundred are believed to still remain.<\/p>\n

This example carries a pre-auction estimate of \u00a310,000 to \u00a312,000 and goes under the hammer in Auctioneum’s Books & Works On Paper Auction on August 6th.<\/p>\n

The full catalogue can be viewed on their website www.auctioneum.co.uk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Only 1,500 copies were printed 08:36, 23 Jul 2025Updated 08:36, 23 Jul 2025 Book specialist Caitlin Riley with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,4884,106644,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-284654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-the-hobbit","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114901431313852344","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}