Where it all began...
 

On his blog John Rateliff http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2009/11...nd-pounds.html to an original drawing by Tolkien which is up for auction at Sotheby's http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot...t_id=159566775

Interesting for a couple of reasons - first, this is the farm bought by his aunt Jane Neave, where Tolkien actually began writing his mythologyhttp://s7d2.scene7.com/is/image/Soth...r-1?$new_main$, & second, you can see an early version of JRRT's famous mongram in the bottom left corner.

It's amazing to me that something like that would be up for auction. The picture itself naturally puts me more in mind of the Shire than Gondolin.