Pauline Baynes' proof Iilustration for the First paperback edition of The Hobbit, cut signature of the artist below proof illustration, framed and window-mounted, frame approx. 405 x 395mm, with letter of provenance, [1961. This unique framed proof also comes with a rare first edition copy of the Puffin Book of The Hobbit, pub. 1961, for which this beautiful design was produced.
*** Pauline Baynes was the first illustrator of Tolkien's minor works such as Farmer Giles of Ham and Tom Bombadil, and was commissioned by Tolkien's publishers to design the book covers and slipcases for the first complete Lord of the Rings Trilogy in one volume, a deluxe edition of the Lord of the Rings series, and to paint a number of sumptuous maps of Middle-Earth. She was an incredibly accomplished illustrator, having also illustrated all seven volumes of C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, and later Grant Uden's A Dictionary of Chivalry which won the Kate Greenaway Medal for best illlustrated children's books of the year in 1968.. She later became an author, writing and illustrating her own stories with animal and Biblical themes.
