An original watercolour for Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone – the first book in JK Rowling’s fantasy series – has been put up for auction and is estimated to fetch more than £400,000.
Auction house Sotheby’s said it is auctioning the work with an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000 (£320,420 to £480,630) – the “highest pre-sale estimate ever placed on an item of any Harry Potter-related work”.
The illustration, by British author and illustrator Thomas Taylor, featured on the covers of the debut edition of the novel in 1997.
The Harry Potter book was his first professional commission at the age of 23. He was asked to illustrate the character by Barry Cunningham at Bloomsbury publishing house.
Taylor was among 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 his way to Hogwarts on board the train.
He used concentrated watercolours on cold-pressed watercolour paper, outlined with black Karisma pencil, to create what he described as now “an iconic image”.
The illustration was first offered at auction in 2001 at Sotheby’s London, when only the first four books in the series were published, and was estimated at £20,000 to £25,000 before being sold at £85,750.
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Also being sold by 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 gifts for people who helped with the publication of Harry Potter and for charity.
The item – estimated at $250,000 to $350,000 (£200,260 to £280,364) – includes a note for Mr Cunningham which reads: “To Barry, the man who thought an overlong novel about a boy wizard in glasses might just sell… Thank you.”
Several presentation copies of the Harry Potter series, including Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets, are also being auctioned.
The works will be sold on 26 June as part of a sale of other literature at Sotheby’s in New York.
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A first edition copy of Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone sold for $421,000 (£337,238) at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, which is thought to be the highest price recorded for an item from the fantasy series.
