It was the Harry N Abrams publisher's edition of the tolkien book with stills and concept art.

I also remember my recollection of the art on the record of the films dialogue and sound effects, there were 2 versions a complete version and a edited version of this LP.

The concept art looks a little different from the finished film, rather like colored storyboards. They were produced in the USA, but the animated program was produced by the Japanese studio Topcraft, who also animated Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, and thundercats amongst other things including return of the king, rotk also had french animators as well. Produced by 3 countries,lol.

Don't feel bad that they cannot get a perfect edition of the hobbit on home video though, look at what the fans of Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings have had to suffer through. The only open matte version of that film is on a rare japanese laserdisc with burned in subtitles. The Vhs, the DVD and Blu ray and all do not give an adequate version of the film as seen and heard in theaters.

At least the Hobbit and Return of the King were available on CED. Though the video was about the same quality as the vhs, if not worse.

Actually these screen captures make it apparent the color definition of the CED is somewhat better than the vhs and gives an idea of the original colors. The funny thing is the quality of the return of the king ced is atrocious going by the pictures.

http://www.cedmagic.com/featured/tolkien/hobbit.html

Also here is an article with info on the original color that they wanted while making it. Described as monochrome like.

http://www.nytimes.com/1977/11/27/books/tolkien-hobbitani.html

If that is the case then the bright disney like color job on the DVD is wrong.