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Museum-Quality Matte Paper Print available in two sizes:
12" x 16" (30cm x 40cm): $35.00
24" x 32" (60cm x 80cm): $48.00
 
“...Frodo kept up the custom of giving Bilbo's Birthday Party year after year until they got used to it...he had a good many friends, especially among the younger hobbits...Folco Boffin and Fredegar Bolger were two of these; but his closest friends were Peregrin Took (usually called Pippin), and Merry Brandybuck..." - The Fellowship of the Ring, Book 1, Chapter 2: The Shadow of the Past 
 
Is this your idea of a dream hobbit kitchen? Following Bilbo's retirement to Rivendell, Frodo Baggins still celebrated their joint birthdays on September 22nd with a feast for his friends. Here, we see him about two years before setting out on his adventure. The adjoining dining room is hung with beautiful hobbit lanterns and garlands of flowers, and so much is going on in this wonderful hobbit kitchen that you hardly know where to look first!
 
Selecting a museum-quality print of this original, hand-done painting could turn the heart of your home into a hobbit kitchen, too! This is not the famous Hundredweight Feast Frodo once gave, but it does look like a very fine hobbit birthday party. Details to notice if you bring this print home include:
 
The last of the day's sunshine is streaming through the kitchen, which is the best kitchen, on the window-side of the smial. More guests will soon be arriving.
Frodo stands at the cooking table, roasting the wild mushrooms hobbits prize on a spit.
Sam is tossing an enormous bowl of taters with parsley.
Folco Boffin carries a tray of currant wine out to the dining room, while Fredegar Bolger pulls the last loaf of fresh bread from the oven.
Merry and Pippin should, perhaps, be helping to cook and serve, but they are adding to the general convivial atmosphere of the occasion.
Pippin is only 26 in this scene, and he seems to feel quite fine in his party attire, but I think his coat is borrowed from his father at Great Smials and is a little too large for this charming hobbit lad.
 
It's harvest time, and the feast is prodigious. Beautiful desserts stand ready on one table, from a tiered plum cake to a dark honey cake embellished with multi-colored apple peels and berries in the shapes of flowers and leaves, to a great birch bark basket of russet apples. There are little raspberry tartlets, a scrumptious pear tart, and beautiful grapes brought up from the Southfarthing. Later, cordials, cheeses, walnuts, and pickled nasturtian pods will be brought out to "fill up the corners". It will be a night of dining, laughter, and song. 
 
There is also another thread of story going on in this painting. Above the hearth, you will see part of a wheat wreath, and Frodo's fancy waistcoat is similarly embellished with embroidered stalks of grain. Thanks to Professor Tom Shippey, I've come to associate Frodo to some degree with the Norse legend of the Fróðafrið - the peace of Fróði. In this account, Fróði has a great grain mill on which he grinds out peace and plenty for the locals. This resonates well with what Frodo restores to the Shire. In this scene in the Bag End kitchen, I hoped to show the deep hobbit contentment Frodo knew when he was just a simple, happy person. This is what he loved, and what he wanted to protect from destruction. Because of Frodo's sacrifice, hobbit kitchens like this one all across western Eriador could be filled with freedom, fellowship, and fun.