THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Comprising The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers & The Return of the King.

First edition, first printing with these illustrations. Signed by the illustrator. Limited edition. Publisher's original quarter navy morocco with titles in silver to the spine. Light blue cloth boards stamped with Tolkien's monogram and ruled in silver. All edges silver. Red ribbon bookmark. Housed in the original blue cloth slipcase stamped with Tolkien's monogram in silver. Illustrated with fifty full colour illustrations by Alan Lee. A very near fine copy, the binding clean, square and tight, bright and fresh. The contents, very lightly creased to the top corner of a couple of pages in the Appendix, are otherwise clean throughout and without previous owner's inscriptions or stamps. There is a tiny abrasion to the fore-edge of the closed text block. The slipcase has a few loose threads to the cloth and is otherwise bright and firm. A wonderful production of the first and most desirable Alan Lee illustrated edition.

Issued in a limited edition of only 250 copies, this example is numbered 195 and signed by Alan Lee on the limitation page. This beautiful edition was produced to celebrate the centenary of J. R. R. Tolkien's birth on January 3, 1892. Alan Lee is one of the most celebrated living illustrators of myth and fantasy: a recipient of the Kate Greenaway Medal, Lee was already an established illustrator of Tolkien when he was chosen to be the concept artist for the hugely successful 'The Lord of the Rings' film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson, for which Lee won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction. Outside of the author's own, Lee's illustrations have become the most admired and recognisable renderings of Middle-earth and its inhabitants.