diff --git a/include/qpdf/QPDF.hh b/include/qpdf/QPDF.hh
index 2e24b261..b547fcbd 100644
--- a/include/qpdf/QPDF.hh
+++ b/include/qpdf/QPDF.hh
@@ -1079,6 +1079,7 @@ class QPDF
     std::shared_ptr<QPDFObject> resolve(int objid, int generation);
     void resolveObjectsInStream(int obj_stream_number);
     void stopOnError(std::string const& message);
+    QPDFObjectHandle reserveObjectIfNotExists(int objid, int gen);
 
     // Calls finish() on the pipeline when done but does not delete it
     bool pipeStreamData(
diff --git a/include/qpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.hh b/include/qpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.hh
index 70c7cf54..ec4a9699 100644
--- a/include/qpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.hh
+++ b/include/qpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.hh
@@ -1444,6 +1444,12 @@ class QPDFObjectHandle
             return QPDFObjectHandle::newStream(
                 qpdf, objid, generation, stream_dict, offset, length);
         }
+        // Reserve an object with a specific ID
+        static QPDFObjectHandle
+        makeReserved()
+        {
+            return QPDFObjectHandle::makeReserved();
+        }
     };
     friend class Factory;
 
@@ -1561,6 +1567,7 @@ class QPDFObjectHandle
         QPDFObjectHandle stream_dict,
         qpdf_offset_t offset,
         size_t length);
+    static QPDFObjectHandle makeReserved();
 
     void typeWarning(char const* expected_type, std::string const& warning);
     void objectWarning(std::string const& warning);
diff --git a/libqpdf/QPDF.cc b/libqpdf/QPDF.cc
index 2658dd26..1807a838 100644
--- a/libqpdf/QPDF.cc
+++ b/libqpdf/QPDF.cc
@@ -2155,6 +2155,17 @@ QPDF::makeIndirectObject(QPDFObjectHandle oh)
         this, next.getObj(), next.getGen());
 }
 
+QPDFObjectHandle
+QPDF::reserveObjectIfNotExists(int objid, int gen)
+{
+    QPDFObjGen og(objid, gen);
+    if ((!this->m->obj_cache.count(og)) && (!this->m->xref_table.count(og))) {
+        resolve(objid, gen);
+        replaceObject(objid, gen, QPDFObjectHandle::Factory::makeReserved());
+    }
+    return getObjectByID(objid, gen);
+}
+
 QPDFObjectHandle
 QPDF::getObjectByObjGen(QPDFObjGen const& og)
 {
diff --git a/libqpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.cc b/libqpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.cc
index 4a61f595..4a0a69ae 100644
--- a/libqpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.cc
+++ b/libqpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.cc
@@ -2775,14 +2775,19 @@ QPDFObjectHandle::newReserved(QPDF* qpdf)
 {
     // Reserve a spot for this object by assigning it an object
     // number, but then return an unresolved handle to the object.
-    QPDFObjectHandle reserved =
-        qpdf->makeIndirectObject(QPDFObjectHandle(new QPDF_Reserved()));
+    QPDFObjectHandle reserved = qpdf->makeIndirectObject(makeReserved());
     QPDFObjectHandle result =
         newIndirect(qpdf, reserved.objid, reserved.generation);
     result.reserved = true;
     return result;
 }
 
+QPDFObjectHandle
+QPDFObjectHandle::makeReserved()
+{
+    return QPDFObjectHandle(new QPDF_Reserved());
+}
+
 void
 QPDFObjectHandle::setObjectDescription(
     QPDF* owning_qpdf, std::string const& object_description)