A rare book personally owned and signed by J.R.R. Tolkien during his student days at Oxford is being offered for sale in Stonehouse, with the auction house describing it as a particularly significant item for collectors.
The copy of The Wanderings of Peoples, by anthropologist A.C. Haddon, carries Tolkien’s handwritten ownership inscription. The inscription is dated June 1914, when Tolkien was 22 and studying at Exeter College, Oxford.
A book with a Tolkien family history
The book stayed in Tolkien’s family before being given by the author to his son, John Francis Reuel Tolkien. It was later sold by Tolkien’s son to the father of the current vendor.
The sale followed a small clear-out while the vendor’s father was serving as chaplain at the University College of North Staffordshire, now Keele University. The book is now being offered publicly for the first time at Quire Auctions in Stonehouse.
The auction estimate is between £800 and £1,200.
Why the subject matter matters to collectors
While works from Tolkien’s personal library are already collected, Quire Auctions director Caitlin Riley said the early inscription was only part of what made this copy stand out.
“Works from Tolkien’s library are hotly collected; and those with ownership inscriptions all the more so,”
Riley said the book’s contents added another layer of interest. The Wanderings of Peoples examines the history of migration and the movement of peoples, including the hardship and conflict they experienced.
“But what makes this one so much more special isn’t just the early inscription, written when Tolkien was just twenty-two.
“It’s the contents of the book.”
According to Riley, the themes explored in Haddon’s book could be especially relevant to collectors because journeys, hardship and migration played a central role in Tolkien’s later work.
“That’s what truly makes this a unique opportunity,”
Stonehouse auction deadline
The auction is scheduled to close from 7.30pm on Wednesday, October 7. The sale gives Tolkien collectors an opportunity to bid on a book connected not only to his early Oxford years, but also to his family and the themes that later became prominent in his writing.
