An original watercolor painting of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” the first book in JK Rowling’s fantasy series, has been auctioned and is expected to fetch more than £400,000.
Auction house Sotheby’s said it would auction the work with an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000 (£320,420 to £480,630) – the “highest estimate ever set for a Harry Potter-related work.”
The illustration by British author and illustrator Thomas Taylor appeared on the cover of the first edition of the novel in 1997.
The Harry Potter The book was his first professional commission at the age of 23. Barry Cunningham of Bloomsbury Publishers asked him to illustrate the character.
Taylor was one of the first to read the manuscript, and it took him two days to complete the depiction of the budding wizard – with his dark hair, round glasses and lightning bolt scar on the train to Hogwarts.
He used concentrated watercolors on cold-pressed watercolor paper and traced the outlines with black Karisma pencil to create an image he now describes as “iconic.”
The illustration was first offered at auction at Sotheby’s in London in 2001, when only the first four books in the series had been published, and was estimated at £20,000-£25,000 before selling for £85,750.
Also available at Sotheby’s New York Fine Books and Manuscripts Auction is an original manuscript for The Tales of Beedle the Bard, also by Rowling – which she originally created in 2007 as a gift for people who helped publish Harry Potter and for charity.
Estimated at $250,000-$350,000 (£200,260-£280,364), the item includes a note for Mr Cunningham which reads: “To Barry, the man who thought an overly long novel about a boy wizard with glasses might sell well… Thank you.”
In addition, several presentation copies of the Harry Potter series will be auctioned, including “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” and “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”.
The works will be auctioned on June 26 as part of an auction for other literature at Sotheby’s in New York.
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A first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone sold for $421,000 (£337,238) at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, believed to be the highest price ever paid for an item from the fantasy series.
