A FIRST edition of The Hobbit has sold for more than £37,000 at auction in Dorchester.

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again sold at Duke's at the Book auction on June 17 for its expected selling price of £30,000 plus inclusion of fees, which brought the total up to £37,500.

READ MORE: The Adventures of Tom Bombadil sold at Duke's Auctioneers, Dorchester

J.R.R. Tolkien's award-winning fantasy novel was published on 21 September 1937, with 1,500 copies printed - selling out by December 15 that year.

The book is a children's fantasy novel by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald Tribune for best juvenile fiction.

The book remains popular and is still recognised as a classic in children's literature.

Tolkien would begin work on his more popular work, The Lord of the Rings, in December 1937.