(Click second thumbnail above to watch video) 
 
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
 
“Then world behind, and home ahead, We'll wander back to home and bed. Mist and twilight, cloud and shade, Away shall fade! Away shall fade! Fire and lamp, and meat and bread, And then to bed! And then to bed!” - The Fellowship of the Ring, Book 1, Chapter 3: Three is Company
 
Welcome into the warmth of this view of Sam Gamgee, his wife, Rose Cotton, and all 13 of their children, just before bedtime at Bag End. If you love the coziness of hobbit life, hanging a museum-quality print of this original, hand-done painting will add instant charm and serenity to any room of your home.
 
The family has gathered in the best bedroom at Bag End and perhaps it's a nightly ritual to have a hot drink together (perhaps some chamomile tea) at close of day. It can take quite a bit of ingenuity to settle children down for the night, even when you have fewer than a baker's dozen!
 
15-year-old Merry is old enough to be trusted with a candle and so he is lighting the way for Sam to piggyback a boisterous 7-year-old Bilbo to one of the lads' rooms down the hall. 11-year-old Hamfast is already asleep in the little bedroom chair, and so is 13-year-old Pippin at the foot of the great Tester-style bed. Mother Rose has the baby of the family, Tolman, in her arms while 8-year-old Primrose nods off beside him.
 
Young Rosie looks so much like her mother, even at 17, and she leans over the back of the chair while 19-year-old Frodo is reading from one of the Red Books. Given that he is the lad who grows up to be called Gardner, I wouldn't be surprised if he's studying the pages relating to the flora of the Golden Wood. 12-year-old Goldilocks and 10-year-old Daisy are cuddled up in their parents' bed with 5-year-old Ruby asleep between them. The eldest child, Elanor, has just entered her tweens at 21, and she is showing 3-year-old Robin the wonder and ever-present sign of hope of Eärendil in the sky.
 
Speaking of stars, I wanted to show something special in this painting about the hobbit custom of giving gifts to others on their birthdays. Professor Tolkien explains in a letter that small children might give little bouquets; handmade things were always appreciated. A very old craft in many European nations is the making of decorations from straw. The agrarian Shire would have abounded in such natural materials and I could imagine hobbit children learning to soak and shape the straw into little stars and flowers. With 13 youngsters, these kinds of birthday presents would add up quickly! And so, I though, Sam and Rose might have taken the notion to hang them from the ceiling of their bedroom, as a kind of recreation of the night sky.
 
This painting also depicts the development of Bag End as an estate. Bungo built the bed for himself and Belladonna. The silver candelabra date from Bilbo's elegant day. The green carpet was Frodo's idea, featuring a pattern of little rabbits meant as a jolly tribute to his benefactor's great adventure. Rose's heritage is seen in the bed curtains as a continuation of my envisioning of the Cottons as textile growers and dyers (my own little tribute to Professor Tolkien's play-on-words with the Gamgee Cotton connection). The draperies are extremely fine and feature a pattern that makes going to bed the next best thing to sleeping in a bed of ferns. Real ferns hang in baskets from the ceiling and that is Sam's heritage from his father, the great gardener!
 
Be sure to watch the video short to hear Rose singing a lullaby to her large and happy family, and celebrate your own warmest thoughts of family life with a print of this warmest of scenes.