"Unopened" vs "uncut" pages

I have a ten-volume first edition set of books by John Muir, circa 1916, which I purchased a while back. The seller advertised them as an "untrimmed" set which I took to mean that the page edges were untrimmed ("deckle" edges is the official term I believe?). When I received the set I found that the pages are not just untrimmed but many of them are also "unopened" (i.e., the individual pages were never separated from the adjacent ones, so the folds between these pages are still intact). I understand that this was often a normal result of book production in those days, with the expectation that the purchaser would separate the pages themselves with a knife. My question is, would this reduce the value and historic significance of these books if I were to separate the pages from each other? It would be nice to be able to read the books in their entirety at some point, but I certainly don't want to do that if it means destroying any value of the set. (I'd much rather just pick up a later edition of the books for reading purposes and leave this set unmolested). Thanks for any info!

 

Good info, thanks for the link. Maybe I will leave it up to my wife as to what to do (leave as-is or separate the pages), since I bought the set for her for Christmas. That way I will hopefully avoid being wrong...(about this one thing anyway).