by J.R.R. Tolkien
First edition, first printing of the iconic fantasy masterpiece
London: George Allen and Unwin, 1937. First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's green cloth with dark green pictorial stamping, top edge stained green. Good, with soling and wear to cloth, cloth thinned at foot of spine and front joint, with a moderate partial split to the rear joint though binding intact. Light foxing to textblock edge. Owner initials to front free endpaper, owner bookplates to front free endpaper and the following blank sheet with light wrinkling to those pages; bookplate to blank is covering evidence of a previous bookplate removal. Pages tanned, lightly thumbed. One of a mere 1,500 copies of the first printing of Tolkien's fantasy classic.