A desk used by the Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien sold in London yesterday for £330,200.
The item was listed at Christie’s Groundbreakers on Thursday, December 11. It was expected to realise from £50,000 to £80,000 according to pre-sale estimates.
In the end, what was described as “spirited bidding” took the mahogany and satinwood piece beyond £300,000.
The desk is highly significant for Tolkien fans. Named The Merton Desk it was used by the writer and academic while he was Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford.
He held that role from 1945 to 1959. Alongside considerable academic output – including a work on Fairy Tales – he almost certainly composed parts of The Lord of the Rings (completed between 1937 and 1949) at this very desk.
Merton College, Oxford, where Tolkien spent 14 years as professor of English language and literature and wrote a fair amount of literature of his own. Image By I, Sailko, wikimedia commons.
Christie’s say Tolkien passed the desk to Dame Irish Murdoch and her husband John Bayley, who himself was an Oxford professor. It was sold by owners who inherited it from Murdoch and Bayley.
Christie’s say the desk is the only known writing desk of his still in private hands.
“This result reaffirms the enduring significance of Tolkien’s work,” said Thais Hitchins, Head of Sale, “and celebrates the desk’s rarity and historical importance. For collectors, it was a truly exceptional opportunity to own a piece of literary history that carries the spirit of Middle-earth.”
Tolkien’s work is valuable across generations and genres: the man’s original papers are valuable (in 2024 papers including work in his invented Elvish language sold for £228,0000; the books themselves too, with a (signed, first edition, first impression) copy of the Lord of the Rings sold for £287,000 earlier this year. And now the early films made around the turn of this century are providing new material, like the Sauron mask that was sold in September this year for $289,800.
