Home clearance unearths rare copy of The Hobbit

The edition is expected to sell for £10,000 at auction

A first edition of The Hobbit is set to sell for thousands at auction - after being discovered during a routine house clearance.

The copy of JRR Tolkien's 1937 book was discovered on a bookcase at a home in Bristol. It is one of only 1,500 copies initially printed in September 1937.

It is expected to fetch more than £10,000 when it goes under the hammer at Auctioneum in Bath on 6 August.

Caitlin Riley, book specialist at the Auctioneum, said: "It's always been highly collectible. For nobody to have in the last 60 years noticed, it blows my mind. It was such a huge surprise for us to find."

The book includes drawings by Tolkien

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, is a children's fantasy novel and one of the best-selling books of all time, with more than 100 million copies sold.

The story is set in the fantasy world Middle-earth and follows the hobbit Bilbo Baggins on a quest to find treasure.

Ms Riley said it had been like finding "a diamond in amongst everything else".

"We couldn't believe our eyes," she said. "The majority of examples you do see come to the market are a bit tattered and tired looking.

"With this one, nobody's opened it, nobody's touched it, so it was just so exciting."

The edition also includes rare drawings by Tolkien himself.