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| Alles zu Tolkien > News > 2004 | Index News |
| Tolkienshop öffnet seine Pforten in Leiden, NL, mit großen Feierleichkeiten (und Museum) |
| Merchandise zur Filmtrilogie gibt es zuhauf und Läden und Onlineshops, die diese verkaufen, auch. Doch wenn man zum Professor Bücher sucht, Dinge aus aller Herren Länder, sich also wirklich für Mittelerde interessiert - dann gibt es nur ein Geschäft. Der Tolkienwinkel bzw. Tolkienshop.com eröffnet am Samstag, dem 7. August, offiziell seine Pforten. Außerdem gibt es ein Museum, das mit der unglaublichen Sammlung von Rene van Rossenbergs angefüllt ist. Nicht vergessen: das ist der Mann, der vor ein paar Jahren einem Herrn namens Peter Jackson alle wichtigen Sachen zu Tolkien geschickt hat? |
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| Grand opening premises
of The Tolkien Shop |
| Saturday, August 7th, 14.00 hour |
| With a performance by the
Italian folkgroup Lingalad and a weaponshow by members of the Belgian Tolkiensociety Elanor. |
| In 1986 I founded The Tolkien Shop. Not satisfied with the number of titles available from my local bookshops here in Leiden (near the coast in Holland). I started to import books, calendars and other Tolkienalia I wanted to add to my collection. Since it is not very economical to have just one copy shipped (assuming the publisher is willing to sell a single copy) I usually bought ten and sold the rest to my fellow Tolkien enthusiasts. Remember, this was "pre-internet" so many items were hard to come by here in Holland. |
| I offered my services to the committee of the Dutch Tolkien Society Unquendor, they agreed and The Tolkien Shop (or Tolkienwinkel in Dutch) started as the sales department of Unquendor. However, it became rapidly known also among non-members that there was a chap in Leiden who had all kind of mighty interesting Tolkien material for sale. And so the shop grew and grew, up to the point that it was far too much work for a committee member. And thus in 1996 I bought the shop from Unquendor, got myself a business license and tax number and The Tolkien Shop became a real company. Nowhere in the world was a company entirely specialised in Tolkien. The Jackson movies have generated some imitators, but no one has the range and depth of The Tolkien Shop; from first editions, original art and handwritten letters of Tolkien to filmmerchandise. |
Although present at many bookfairs and Tolkien events in and outside Holland, The Tolkien Shop was in essence a mailorder business. First via printed catalogues, but soon via the internet:
www.tolkienshop.com and www.tolkienwinkel.nl. |
| And now the next big step in the development of The Tolkien Shop will be made on August 7: the opening of premisses. On one of the lovely canals in Leiden, with elegant buildings and old boats along the quayside, The Tolkien Shop has a hundred square metres available to display all the good stuff. There is also room for a gallery (currently showing an exhibition of the watercolours for The Hobbit by the Ukrainian artist Sergei Iukhimov) and you can even play on The Lord of the Rings Pinball machine! |
| At the premisses I could also fulfill another dream: to have my own Tolkien museum to display the result of about 30 years of collecting. On premant display will be first editions, books signed by Tolkien and the material relating to Tolkien's visit to Rotterdam in March 1958, such as his correspondance with the organiser and photo's taken during the "Hobbit
Maaltijd". Since shop, museum and gallery are in the same building, the opening hours are the same: Thursday evening from 17.00 to 22.00 hour, Saturday from 10.00
to 18.00 hour, or by appointment. So if you are in this part of the world, please drop by. And if you are a Tolkien scholar it would be great if you could give a lecture in the shop and autograph copies of your book (if you have one out). And I am always looking for artists who wish to display their Tolkien inspired art in the gallery. |
| The grand opening of the premisses of The Tolkien Shop will be performed by the Dutch tv presenter and 'man of letters' Diederik van Vleuten. Giuseppe Festa and another member of the Italian folkgroup Lingalad will perform songs by Tolkien, both in Italian and English, and members of Elanor will
give a marial arts display (outside the shop in the street; I do not want them to damage a display cabinet!) On Saturday August 7 the shop opens at the regular time of 10 o'clock. The programme starts at 14.00 hour. |
| Everyone (Men, Hobbit, Dwarf, Elf, even Orc) is welcome to participate in the celebration of this unique shop in the world; the only brick-and-mortar shop and museum entirely dedicated to J.R.R. Tolkien and his work.
| Beleefd aanbevelend,
René van Rossenberg |
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| [Tolkienshop.com] Rene van Rossenbergs weltweit einzigartiger Tolkienladen |
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