Geeky collectibles, props, and other notable items are being auctioned a lot lately. Only in the last few days, we wrote about an auction seeing dragon eggs from the unaired pilot of Game of Thrones being bid on. But in terms of value, nothing comes close to the desk of legendary fantasy scribe J.R.R. Tolkien, which is currently about to enter the auction house for tens of thousands.
Per a BBC report, the storied desk has a guide price of £50,000 to £80,000. To translate those figures into USD, that's around $35,500 and $60,000 in the current market. Tolkien used the desk while working as Merton professor of English language and literature at Oxford university between 1945 and 1959. It's a glorious piece of mid-Victorian roll-top mahogany and satinwood. Such a desk would be worth a decent amount even before taking into account its historical significance.
Experts believe that the desk was used by Tolkien for the proofing of his seminal fantasy work, The Lord Of The Rings, and possibly even for the final stages of its revision. The Lord of the Rings needs no introduction; it's arguably the most culturally significant and revered work of fantasy ever written.
The desk goes on auction at Christie's on December 11. "This mid-Victorian roll-top desk, owned and used by JRR Tolkien, is an extraordinary material witness to the author's most productive and creative literary period," said Thais Hitchins, a junior specialist at the auction house. "Situated in his study at Merton College, Oxford, and later at his residence at Sandfield Road, it was one of Tolkien's primary work stations during a period in which the author added the important final touches to his magnum opus, The Lord Of The Rings, and researched and drafted some of his most significant academic works, such as his linguistic study of Middle English, Ancrene Wisse."
Hitchins named the desk "one of the most important artefacts of Tolkien's career."
Fantasy geeks will also be interested in another piece going under the hammer: The original Harry the Hammer cover artwork for the first edition of Warhammer. The artwork is interestingly significantly more valuable than Tolkien's desk, according to its £300,000 to £400,000 guide price.
There will perhaps be no bigger flex than working from Tolkien's desk. If you can stomach the price, go for it!
The Lord of the Rings movies will return with The Hunt for Gollum, a story based on Tolkien's appendices, in 2027.