Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

The copy presented here is a first English paperback edition, 27th printing of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. It contains a 1999 variation of J.K. Rowling’s signature and was signed to the dedication page in blue ballpoint pen ‘ To Lily, you will know that I love your name because I used it for Harry’s mum!’ Lily was the daughter of illustrator, Ian Beck, at the Hay Literary Festival. Ian knew the publicity and editorial team at Bloomsbury who introduced him to J.K. Rowling who was happy to inscribe this book for his daughter.

This is a beautiful copy completely unread, with no colour fading at all to the spine. The page edges are surprising white and fresh which is incredibly rare for this book. They are often found with significant toning  due to the cheap paper stock used. It still has an incredibly tight binding, and hardly any bend or bowing to the front cover which is again very rare. The only minor flaw to the book is a slight nick to the base of the spine and a very minor water mark to the bottom of the half title page, otherwise this book is in stunning fine condition. There are no ownership inscriptions or writing of any kind with no dog eared pages, folds or creases to any of the pages. The book overall has clearly been very well looked after housed in its custom made quarter leather clamshell box with bespoke gold lettering to the spine.

The signature and inscription come fully authenticated by Adam Houston ‘theharrypotterspecialist’ the world’s leading expert in authenticating Jo’s signature. It comes with a full authentication package including a letter of authenticity and collector card. This book was previously owned by Adam himself having bought it in 2022 directly from the original owner. It comes with provenance in the form of an email and hand written letter by Ian Beck to Adam Houston.