The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. This item is unavailable.The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

London, George Allen & Unwin, 1984 (third impression)/ 1976 (first deluxe edition)/ 1937. Octavo, 286 pages plus 2 double-page maps printed in red and black (the endpaper maps from the original edition), a colour frontispiece and 12 colour plates (all artwork is by the author, but eight of the plates are coloured by H.E. Riddett). Black cloth lettered in gilt on the spine, with a large gilt, silver and red illustration of a dragon on the front cover ('based upon a drawing by the author'); all edges speckled green; cloth very lightly mottled; boards slightly bowed; an excellent copy (internally fine) in the very good original black paper-covered box, with a large red, black and white paper title label on the front (lightly rubbed and marked, with a few fingermarks to the label).