Bidding on an autograph letter written by JRR Tolkien currently stands at $6,409 in RR Auction's online sale, which is due to end on June 18.
The lot dates to 1956 and is addressed to Doris Sykes, an illustrator who had sent Tolkien some drawings for an illustrated copy of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
 JRR Tolkien wrote the letter to illustrator Doris Sykes |
The author writes: "I have shown your drawings to other 'readers' & the response has been good; though most agree that the best way of doing hobbits is to make them absolutely ordinary human beings (except for a neat goatee or buskin of hair), and not too childlike, round-eyed etc...
"I like some of the drawings so much that I should like to consider asking you to allow me to purchase some for myself, in the event of an illustrated edition being indefinitely postponed."
It was sold alongside another letter to Sykes at Christie's London in June last year. The pair made £15,000 ($23,505) as a single lot.
A letter from US founding father Alexander Hamilton is at $5,324.
It dates to just after Hamilton's successful resolution of the panic of 1792 (a financial crisis brought on by a series of US banks defaulting on loans) and reads in part: "I have to request that you will furnish me…with the particular statements required by the said order…as Uniformity in the mode of stating the receipts and disbursements will facilitate the business, a form is hereto annexed as a guide."
We have a huge range of autographs available, including this rare signed lottery ticket from George Washington.
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