The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1962
AN EXCELLENT SET OF THE FIRST EDITIONS OF THE COMPLETE SET OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS SERIES IN THEIR ORIGINAL DUST JACKETS!
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The Fellowship of the Ring is the twelfth impression from 1962 in its original dust jacket, The Two Towers is a ninth impression from 1962 in its original dust jacket, and The Return of the King is a ninth impression from 1962 in its original dust jacket. A rare set presumably all originally purchased at the same time and kept together since then. A beautiful set of the first edition of Tolkien's masterpiece with the dust jackets in remarkably bright original condition.
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Size: 147 x 228 mm (approx., each)
Condition:
Summary:
FOTR dust jacket overall very good, Two Towers dust jacket near fine to fine, ROTK dust jacket very good. Bindings all fine, text blocks all very fine (flawless), maps all fine to very fine, some offsetting to ffep and rfep in each volume.
Detailed:
The spine panels of the dust jackets are remarkably bright, significantly better than typical examples. There is some toning at the extremities, most to the Return of the King at the top of the spine. Some minor wear at the extremities including a small amount of loss at the foot of The Fellowship of the Ring's dust jacket spine panel. The joints for each panel of each dust jacket are secure with the dust jackets all structurally secure. Dust jackets a little toned with the odd small areas of discolouration, but again remain significantly better than typically encountered. A small circular stain to the front panel of The Fellowship of the Ring dust jacket where the title is, this is faint and not particularly intrusive. Verso of each dust jacket near fine or better, generally without fault.
The set is without shelf lean. The binding of FOTR is slightly cocked but structurally very secure, as are all three volumes. All three bindings near fine to fine, indeed externally excellent. Some extremely minor shelf/edge wear else one of the best examples one might encounter. Some light stains to top page edge of FOTR and extremely minorly to The Two Towers, else page edges very good. Some offsetting to ffep and rfep of each volume, presumably of tape from now removed protective sleeves for the dust jackets. Map slightly folded at the edge in the Two Towers, perhaps as published (?), else each volume is internally very fine through the text blocks with the maps similarly very fine. Internally excellent. Each volume collates as complete with no missing pages and each volume retains the original foldout map.
