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It's going to auction after being found in perfect condition
Director of Rare Book Auctions, Jim Spencer, with the rare pristine condition of a first edition, first issue copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's StoneAn unread copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone that was kept in mint condition in an attic for nearly 30 years is set to fetch £10,000 at auction.
The rare first edition - which was sold for just £4.99 when it was first published in 1997 - is hailed as “the finest example ever to come to market”. The paperback copy was sent to Katrina McNichol, who was working as a book reviewer for a magazine in the Scottish Highlands in the late 1990s.
Then aged 24, Katrina never got around to reading the book and it was put into a storage box. Katrina stumbled across the "time capsule” book while clearing out her loft in her current home in Edinburgh and instantly recognised its value. It is now set to sell for between £7,000 and £10,000 when it goes under the hammer at Rare Book Auctions this week.
Katrina, now aged 53, said: “Each week I received more than 20 titles to review and it was impossible to feature them all. I’ve never quite known why I set this particular book aside, long before the Harry Potter phenomenon began, but I carried it with me from home to home with dozens of others and I’m so glad that I did.
Katrina McNicol was 24 in 1997 and working on a magazine in the Highlands when she was sent a copy of the paperback to review“I genuinely forgot it existed it. When I came across it in a box 30 years later, I did a double-take.
“You don’t expect to stumble across something so valuable in your own attic. The book deserves to be with someone who truly appreciates what it is, a small but genuine piece of publishing history. ” Katrina was working in the Scottish Highlands when she received the book. Due to it being one of the first editions printed it contains several mistakes – making it even more of a collector’s item.
When J.K. Rowling’s debut novel was first published, Bloomsbury expected little demand and printed just 500 hardbacks and a little over 5,000 paperbacks – making both editions exceptionally rare. Jim Spencer, director of Rare Book Auctions, said: “This is the best example I've ever handled – and I've handled a few.
“Many were passed among friends, squished inside school rucksacks, splashed with orange squash, and scribbled with doodles, but this example has been perfectly preserved in a time capsule. It is as good as the day it was made. ” The rare paperback also includes all the telltale signs of a genuine first edition, first issue, so loved by collectors. Jim said: “The first quirk to look out for is the missing ‘o’ in the word 'philosopher’s’ on the back cover.
On page 53, a list of school supplies Harry receives from Hogwarts refers to item ‘1 wand’ twice – at the start and again at the end, he added. Jim, a Harry Potter book expert, added: “This is an exceptionally rare opportunity for Potterheads to bid for perhaps the finest example ever to come onto the market. It simply couldn't be any better than this. ”
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