Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression, map endpapers, illustrations, frontispiece and 3 colour plates, small ownership inscription on front free endpapers, original cloth, boards lightly bowed, small strip of fading to extremities, otherwise excellent, dust-jacket, some chips and nicks to extremities, light patch of spotting to upper panel, light spotting to flaps and fore-edge, [Hammond A3a], 8vo, 1937 [but 1938].*** Rare in jacket.The second impression was the first version of the book to be illustrated in colour: the first impression had two plates only, both of which were uncoloured. A total of 2,300 copies were printed, and some 400 held at the binder's London warehouse were destroyed during the Blitz in November 1940.