1956. 1st Edition 5th Impression. 423 pages. No dust jacket. Red cloth boards with gilt lettering. Contains black and red full-page map of the Shire, and fold out map of Middle Earth tipped to rear endpaper. Clean pages with light tanning and mild foxing throughout. More pronounced to free endpapers and pastedowns. Top textblock edge dyed red. Binding remains firm. Slight creasing to edge of one panel of map due to incorrect folding. Boards have mild edge-wear with slight rubbing to surfaces and bumping to corners. Gilt lettering is darkened and appears slightly off-centre. Minor sunning to spine and edges with crushing to spine ends. Visible wear marks to boards. Slight faint water staining to rear board and spine. Notable gap between text block and cloth at head of spine.