Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
First UK Edition, First Printing, J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury 1997, Hardback 1/500
A very good example of the very rare 1/500 true first edition hardback copies. All of the first printing points can be observed including the Wendy Cooling quote to the bottom of the front cover, the misspelled Philospher’s present to the rear cover along with the Wizardry and Witchcraft, rather than Witchcraft and Wizardry. The very well known error of 1 wand listed twice on page 53 along with the all important 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 number line listed on the copyright page and the missing space between Thomas Taylor1997.
The binding is very well preserved, tight and solid. Internally, the pages are all present, clean and fresh with the usual toning to the text block edges, due to the cheap paper stock used in the printing of this title. There are no marks, tears, dog eared pages at all to the pages that bear the stories text. However in the preliminary pages you can see some minor circular water stains affecting four pages total. The title page shows a darker square, presumably where an old sticker (possibly a library sticker) has been removed, which also appears through to the other side of the paper on the copyright page. There are no library stamps, marks, personal inscriptions or writing of any kind.
The front and back boards as well as the spine have undergone some minor restoration. All work has been carried out by the UK’s leading expert in book and paper restoration Richard Reeve. The books remaining laminate was removed, and the boards four corners and in some parts the edges have been colour touched up. The Spine itself has had no changes to its structure or integrity, but has had some colour touch up, particularly the blue where the spine meets the rear board. All in all the work has been carried out to the very highest standard.
It is well documented that there were 500 first printings in hardback, 200 of which went to shops/stores whilst 300 went to the library system. If we presume this is an ex library copy due to the possibility that a library sticker has been removed, this is a copy in very good condition overall and to have no owner inscription or writing at all internally is extremely rare. The holy grail for any Harry Potter Collector.
