1807 J. R. R. TOLKIEN. Original Brass Sign from Retreat Where Tolkien Dreamed Up Middle Earth!

A wonder-full artifact with deep connections to the life of J. R. R. Tolkien. As a child, Tolkien's guardian after his mother died, Father Francis Morgan, would take take him and his brothers to Lyme Regis on the south coast of England. They would stay at what was then the finest hotel in town, The Three Cups. His imagination was stoked there. He recalled finding a large jaw bone as a child and half-convinced himself it was that of a dragon. He drew*. He painted. He imagined stories. It held such a special place in his imagination that he returned twice for extended periods to stoke his imagination. The first was in 1927 and 1928 when he executed a series of imaginative fairy tale paintings. These are clear precursors to Middle Earth. Then, importantly, when he began working on "a world" for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to live in, he again chose The Three Cups in Lyme Regis as his retreat. He moved into a room at the old hotel of his childhood and crafted there the world that