The Registry of Lost Treasures

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

This thread is not a listing of Golden Threads, which have been lost, but rather a registry to lament the loss of Tolkien related treasures once in your possession that have now gone missing. So instead of The Collection Grows (http://69.51.5.41/showthread.php?t=5489), we have in effect the collection waning.

All this nostalgia was spurred by the twinges I have felt since taking on membership here, realizing that so many things I once owned have regrettably disappeared. (Being in a military family and rather bohemian afterward I feel weight limits were the culprit in my case. Mathoms were kept to a minimum, and so also were extraneous books.)

Anyway, the latest pang came when I saw this specimen (http://www.tolkienshop.com/contents/media/ringbuckle1.jpg) after following a link off a link that davem had posted. Truly a mathom, I had one gifted to me and have lost track of it since, so that I forgot I even had had it. Surprisingly, it appears to be worth 75 euros now.

Other items on my personal list include:

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight/ Pearl/ Sir Orfeo (http://www.tolkienbooks.net/html/1974-1976_13.htm )

Farmer Giles of Ham (http://www.tolkienbooks.net/html/1974-1976_6.htm)

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/booksbytolkien/adventuresoftb/images/book.jpg )

The Silmarillion (http://www.cafes.net/ditch/tolksil.jpg)

J. Cauty Poster (http://www.allposters.com/-sp/The-Lord-of-the-Rings-Posters_i96874_.htm)

Pauline Baynes map (http://www.abo.fi/~jumppa/Pauline_Baynes_map_of_Middle-earth.jpg)

And a record that I can't find an image for.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Sad stories indeed, Hilde - and that in the Mirth forum! I lost something at Tolkien 2005 in Birmingham - the button I bought as a souvenir at the LotR movie exhibition in Houston. I had it pinned to my totebag (made of my BD T-shirt) and when I discovered it had disappeared, I did ask, but it hadn't been found by the time I left. Nothing of any monetary worth, but I've gotten buttons or pins of all other LotR activities I've attended, so I am sad to have lost it.

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Oh, that would be sad, to the memories attached and the reminder gone. Makes you wonder if it would be worth while putting an address on the back of such things!

And yes you are very right, this is an odd place for this sort of thread, but it didn't seem to fit into the description of Novice and Newcomer or the Barrow-downs catagory, so I thought to makes book-ends with The Collection Grows thread.

[Bêthberry]

Sam's beloved pans. ;)

Seriously now, for me there is a missing, well, I suppose one could say treasure, although at the time such a characterisation was not claimed. It is not something I once had only to have it slip through my fingers. Rather is an experience I decided to forego. And now, there are not so much regrets or second thoughts, but musings on whether a road was lost for being not taken.

What was it, do you think.

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

I'm thinking along the lines of a short lived and daring spectacle, in which case I share in the musings.

But also do miss seeing LotR with my mind's eye, rather than Peter Jackson's.

[Bêthberry]

By jove, you've got it!

And aye, that is in some ways a greater loss, the freedom of the mind's eye. Do you think the passing of years might restore it to you?

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Certainly, I hope so. But the phenomenon makes the thought of any additional movies rather bittersweet, doesn't it?

[The 1,000 Reader]

I read the books and enjoyed them thoroughly.

Then I read the Silmarillion and learned that Sauron was a god yet got his butt kicked more than anyone in Middle-Earth and was humiliated multiple times. Now I have problems taking LOTR seriously compared to the Silmarillion.:( The Ring seemed more deadly in their hands than Sauron's.

[Lalwendë]

As an inveterate hoarder I don't give much away apart from carbon dioxide (and even that's tough to give away now I've lived in Yorkshire for so long and learned their ways :D). But I will always regret not getting the matching tankard to my pottery Green Dragon ale flagon, which was a present from my mate the first Christmas FotR came out. There was a matching Prancing Pony one and I didn't buy it - now you cannot get it anywhere deapite trawling t'internet for years. A lot of that early stuff was quality ware and you simply do not find it for sale - like the circular metal ring verse keyring I have which is so heavy its too dangerous to hang car keys from it - never seen one of those anywhere online.

Of course I will always regret not noticing Christopher Lee was signing books in Forbidden Planet one evening a few years back - I was too excited by watching Simon Pegg doing his afternoon signing to see the notices. :(

And you can indeed still buy that Jimmy Cauty poster - I've seen 'em online. Fab item because, of course, of what he then went on to do!

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Hmm..wow. Just looked up Cauty and saw that he made that poster at age 17, which was just a touch older than I was when I had it. Did see it for sale online as well, and have half a mind to get it to replace the photo I have of it now. It's more a sentimental thing with me. (Also saw that he was a co-founder of The Orb, which I hadn't realized.)

Too bad about the tankard. With any luck one will show up for sale in 10 or 20 years!

As for Lee's book signing, yes I'd probably kick myself over that, if I were to miss one close by.

[The Might]

I used to own a copy of Mrs. Fonstad's Atlas of Middle-earth, but I seem to have lost it...
Too bad though, I liked it.

[Lalwendë]

Hmm..wow. Just looked up Cauty and saw that he made that poster at age 17, which was just a touch older than I was when I had it. Did see it for sale online as well, and have half a mind to get it to replace the photo I have of it now. It's more a sentimental thing with me. (Also saw that he was a co-founder of The Orb, which I hadn't realized.)

Too bad about the tankard. With any luck one will show up for sale in 10 or 20 years!

As for Lee's book signing, yes I'd probably kick myself over that, if I were to miss one close by.

davem has a print of the poster which is on a piece of wood for some reason but it's a nice thing. It must have been created in about 1973 - height of Rings fandom. Allegedly he also made another one based on the Hobbit - which I shall have to track down. The poster was of course sold by Athena, poster sellers to kids everywhere at that time!

Cauty is a legend - not only did he co-create A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From the Centre of the Ultraworld but he's a co-founder of the KLF and the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, also a Timelord, and a member of Zodiac Mindwarp's band. When the K Foundation set fire to one million quid, it was Cauty's idea.

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Yeah, he does seem to have had a hand in quite a bit, but that burning of cash...I know I could have found a better use for it. Perhaps for a bid on a tasty bit of ephemera, such a keyrings or tankards should they show up. Or better yet a signed first edition! ;)

Didn't know or don't remember the existance a Cauty poster for The Hobbit, I should like to see it! His work struck me as a welcome contrast to the Bros. Hildebrandt style, who dominated the Tolkien inspired art scene back then. I will say that Aragorn on the LoTR poster does look a bit more like a rocker than I imagined, but the handling of the Elendilmir on his brow was quite satisfactorily done to my young taste. :D

And The Might is in luck, as The Atlas of Middle-earth is still in print, and a used copy can be had for at little as $4.80 USD (plus shipping) from Amazon. Let not your heart be troubled, dear Downer!

The Ultimate Collection? (http://www.marquette.edu/library/collections/archives/Mss/JRRT/mss-jrrt-s-5.html)

[mark12_30]

I once, also, had posters. I had both Pauline Bayne's maps; I also had the map bordered by the Ballantine Tryptych-- remember those flying black horses? and the pink eggplant thingys hanging off of the tree

And I do, I do so miss my original Ballantine boxed set. THe red box, with the heraldry; and they had the paintings by TOlkien on the covers: Hobbiton, and Fangorn, and Barad Dur. I had underlined every mention of, or quote from, Boromir-- my Boromir!-- and how I loved the worn, faded red box with the heraldry.

A decade later, it mildewed, alas, and in a fit of practicality I tossed it. (MADNESS I TELL YOU! MADNESS!)

I still have my original Hobbit, which went with that set. I went on ebay, at Mr. Underhill's recommendation, and bought myself another copy of the red heraldry boxed set... but it's just not the same.

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

...bought myself another copy of the red heraldry boxed set... but it's just not the same.

I can relate. After replacing my hard back copy of the Silmarillion it somehow it feels like an imposter sitting there on the shelf! :p

Helen, I have tired googling up "the map bordered by the Ballantine tryptych" without much success in finding that particular item, but I must thank you, for I have stumbled across a treasure trove of Tolkien's handwritten letters while searching for it! :)

[Mister Underhill]

I've never been much of a collector, but I do wish I still could lay hand to the collection of Tolkien calendars that were a yearly tradition in my teens. And this is more tangential, but I used to have an extensive collection of the old Iron Crown Enterprises Middle-earth Roleplaying sourcebooks, of which only a couple of volumes are still in my possession.

[Parmastahir]

Mister Underhill -

You can EASILY lay your hands on the Tolkien calendars. The various Ballantine, Allen&Unwin, and their successors' (i.e. - HarperCollins) show up all of the time on eBay. If you wish to go completely OCD over the Tolkien calendars, check out my website at www.tolkiencalendars.com I have been able to catalog 329 (soon to be 330 as soon as I can create an entry for a newly discovered 2003 issue) calendars and collect over 300 of them. Hope you enjoy it!

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parmastahir