Together, 3 volumes, 8vo. Folding map tipped-in each volume at rears, single-page map in The Fellowship. (The Fellowship of the Ring: few spots of old adhesive to pastedowns; The Two Towers: light spotting to a few leaves and fore-edge of text block; The Return of the King: front panel of original dust jacket? pasted to front free endpaper.) Original red cloth, gilt-lettered spines (spines lightly sunned with some leaning, The Return of the King with spotting or staining to covers and some fraying at spine ends). Provenance: gift inscription dated 1961 ("a collection of ruddy hobbits"); Margaret Louise Hunter (bookplate and ownership signature dated 1955); FA Black, St. Michael's College, Toronto (inscription).

FIRST EDITIONS, ALL FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE GREATEST FANTASY NOVEL EVER WRITTEN. The Return of the King with signature mark “4” and sagging type on page 49 (a state which Hammond’s bibliography originally posited to be the “first state,” but which is now considered indicative of a second or third state). Hammond noted this misinterpretation in Issue 11 of The Tolkien Collector (October 1995). The three variants are of manufacture only and would have been published simultaneously. Hammond A5a-i, ii, and iii; Bleiler, Supernatural Fiction 1606-8; Pringle, Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels 16; Cawthorn & Moorcock, Fantasy: The 100 Best Books 76.