Sotheby's Tolkien auction yields £103,680 on strong collector demand

A collection of books and notes documenting the friendship between JRR Tolkien and a profoundly deaf fan has sold at Sotheby’s in London for £103,680 including seller's premium. The archive, dating from 1961 to 1964, fetched more than double its pre-sale estimates. The strong bidding underscores the current market appetite for rare literary manuscripts with verifiable histories.

The standout lot, which contained a signed copy of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and a letter detailing the death of author CS Lewis, achieved £20,480. Will Passey, a specialist in the books and manuscripts department at Sotheby's, framed the result as clear evidence of a specific collector trend. "The sale proved that Tolkien is a highly sought-after collecting area right now, with top clients willing to pay a premium for unique items with excellent provenance such as these," Passey said.

That provenance traces back to Eileen Elgar, who died in 1980 and lived near the Hotel Miramar in Bournemouth, where the Oxford-based Tolkien and his wife holidayed annually. Elgar initiated the contact in the 1960s after reading his books. Because she never learned to lip read, their interactions at her home relied entirely on handwritten notes, creating a unique physical record of their relationship.

Elgar's granddaughter, Helen Dutfield, recalled how the correspondence began. Dutfield described Elgar as "quite an isolated figure" who repeatedly discussed the books with her mother. "My mother, who wasn't interested in them at all, said 'Why don't you write to the author?' - so that's how that started," Dutfield said.

Passey noted that a letter referencing Lewis's death was particularly "moving" and served as "a testament to the strength" of their friendship. From a market perspective, the specialist emphasized the financial value of such untouched archives. "Although we have quite a lot of published letters of Tolkien's, these have been hitherto overlooked," Passey said, a factor that directly contributed to the auction's ability to shatter its initial estimates.