A GROUP OF 16 METAL FIGURES FOR DISPLAY WITH PHILIP SMITH'S LORD OF THE RINGS BOOK BINDINGS

A group of 16 cast metal figures depicting characters from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Ranging in height from 3.5cms (Gollum and Frodo) to 8.5 cms (Gandalf). Owned and used by the award winning bookbinder Philip Smith MBE for display alongside his legendary Lord of the Rings bindings. Housed in a card box, inscribed by Philip Smith and with his early and later address labels.

The bindings which Philip Smith MBE (1928-2019) created for the works of Tolkien were amongst his most pioneering in terms of their technical innovation. The intelligence of their artistry and the scale of their ambition also ensured that they were Smith's most celebrated, with his Lord of the Rings 'book wall', conceived in 1970 - in which a number of volumes, although complete designs in themselves, also come together to form a larger work of art - perhaps being the most famous. The present set of figures were used by Smith to enhance the various displays of his bindings for Tolkien's works, of which he produced several dozen, winning him numerous awards. Examples of Smith's bindings are now held by many important private and major public collections, including those of the V&A, the British Library and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.