{"id":93835,"date":"2025-10-22T07:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/93835\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T07:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:50:09","slug":"op-shop-purchase-of-the-hobbit-could-be-worth-tens-of-thousands-if-verified-as-first-edition-tolkien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/93835\/","title":{"rendered":"Op shop purchase of The Hobbit could be worth tens of thousands if verified as first edition Tolkien"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Tasmanian woman is trying to sell what she says is a 1937 edition of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit she purchased in an op shop 31 years ago, for more than $40,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Renee Woodleigh says she bought the book \u2014 which she says is a first edition copy \u2014 at the St Vincent de Paul op shop in Huonville, south of Hobart.<\/p>\n

“I remember looking over my shoulder, I was 19 at the time, and thinking ‘does anybody in here realise that this is a first edition?’,” Ms Woodleigh said.\"A<\/p>\n

The overleaf and an illustration from Ms Woodleigh’s copy of The Hobbit. (Facebook)<\/p>\n

In an interview with ABC Radio Hobart<\/a>, Ms Woodleigh said she had decided it was time to sell her lucky find, advertising it online for $44,000.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been approached already by a potential buyer,” she said.<\/p>\n

First or second impression?<\/p>\n

Rachel Edwards runs an online second-hand bookshop in Tasmania, and said Ms Woodleigh’s story “sounds incredibly legitimate”.<\/p>\n

Tory Page, a rare book specialist with 35 years’ experience in the industry, said the book could “absolutely” be a first edition, but the issue would be whether it was a first or second impression \u2014 or print \u2014 of the first edition.<\/p>\n

“In 1937 there were two impressions, and the price varies greatly between those two \u2026 different sorts of illustrations, and that’s something the prospective buyer will probably need to clarify,” Ms Page said.\"A<\/p>\n

Ms Page said different impressions with different illustrations fetch a very different price. (Facebook)<\/p>\n

Ms Page said a first edition impression recently sold for between \u00a315,000 and \u00a320,000 (up to $41,000), and the second impression between \u00a33,000 and \u00a35,000 (up to $10,000).<\/p>\n

Ms Page said a first edition of The Hobbit had not been sold in Australia for some time.<\/p>\n

“I’m sure a buyer here in Australia will be very excited, but they’d probably want to see it to make sure it’s complete \u2026 missing illustrations or pages makes a big difference,” she said.\"The<\/p>\n

The Hobbit was adapted into a series of films by director Peter Jackson. (Warner Bros Pictures)<\/p>\n

Collecting first editions? Beware of ‘mongrel sets’<\/a><\/p>\n

It takes a keen eye to know what you’re buying as a book collector, and while a first edition could be worth a packet, its value can be in its dust jacket. So how do you judge a book by its cover?<\/p>\n

Maggie Patton, head of collection acquisition and duration at the State Library of New South Wales, said the illustrations in the book would provide clues.<\/p>\n

“Certainly, the cover and the title page look correctly to be identified as a first edition.<\/p>\n

“There were 1,500 copies done of the first edition. They sold out very quickly and they did a second issue. And the second issue has coloured illustrations.”<\/p>\n

Ms Patton said the “thing about The Hobbit is many people would have collected them just as a children’s book.<\/p>\n

“It’s just sat on the shelf all that time and it’s not until someone looks at it, they see it’s a first edition.”\"A<\/p>\n

Ms Woodleigh’s copy of The Hobbit was first given to a W Parker, as a prize. (Facebook)<\/p>\n

A storied past<\/p>\n

Ms Woodleigh said she threw out her copy’s dust jacket some time ago.<\/p>\n

“I still have the visual in my head of looking at the dust cover thinking ‘should I throw the dust cover away’,” she said.<\/p>\n

“If I had the dust cover now, the book would be worth triple-fold what it’s worth now.”<\/p>\n

Ms Woodleigh said she would use any money from a sale to help a friend in need. She also wants to donate some of the funds to the op shop she purchased the book from, and some to the school that presented the book to a student as a prize.<\/p>\n

A note in the book shows it was given to W Parker as a prize for his French in December 1937, at Kingham Hill School, which is in the UK.<\/p>\n

“[The school] is currently researching who this is. If [they] were in form five in 1937, then [they] would be around the age of 97 to 100,” Ms Woodleigh said.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Tasmanian woman is trying to sell what she says is a 1937 edition of JRR Tolkien’s The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[69838,38645,85,489,3167,156,69837,57870,30601,69839,69840,23226,6214,111,139,69,1133,13311,24035,9997,66575],"class_list":{"0":"post-93835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-69838","9":"tag-artwork","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-books","12":"tag-buy","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-first-edition","15":"tag-illustration","16":"tag-impression","17":"tag-j-r-r-tolkien","18":"tag-jrr-tolkien","19":"tag-map","20":"tag-marketplace","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-newzealand","23":"tag-nz","24":"tag-sale","25":"tag-sell","26":"tag-selling","27":"tag-tasmania","28":"tag-the-hobbit"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}