Unique Set of Unbound Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Sheets to Auction

The only known set of unbound gathered sheets for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone will lead Heritage Auctions' May 8-9 Rare Books auction.

This complete set of full unbound and folded imposed sheets is from the rare first issue of J. K. Rowling’s book published in 1997. “These sheets are a possibly unique survival and represent the final form of the first Harry Potter book just prior to binding,” said Francis Wahlgren, Heritage’s International Director of Rare Books & Manuscripts. “These sheets show the imposition of the page lay-outs on both sides of each sheet, folded and gathered into 14 quires, for a total of 224 pages, before trimming and binding, and partially perforated by the printer’s folding machine, with full margins preserved including printer’s codes, gray scales and trim marks. They also contain quire signature numbers on outer spine folds.

“This newly discovered set of sheets is one of the very few pre-publication versions of the book to have appeared on the market, and the only known set of such sheets at this penultimate stage of production, and the first ever offered at auction, just prior to being bound and trimmed.”

The set was acquired by the present owner from a private collector who obtained these sheets directly from a manager at the London printers, Clays Ltd.

Other highlights include:

• Signed and inscribed copies of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• a Gutenberg Bible leaf (Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg and Johann Fust, c.1455), which comes from the Trier City Library copy of the Gutenberg Bible, discovered in the 1820s in a farm building outside the city by the Trier librarian
• a rare printing of the Declaration of Independence printed in The Pennsylvania Ledger: Or the Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New-Jersey Weekly Advertiser, the 13th newspaper publication of the Declaration, preceded by five other Philadelphia newspapers (one in German), three from Maryland, three from New York, and one from Connecticut
• an inscribed presentation set of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, comprising Foundation, Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation