The original watercolour illustration for the first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone — the book that introduced the world to the bespectacled wizard with a lightning bolt scar — has sold for $2.8 million.
The artwork becomes “the most valuable Harry Potter item ever sold at auction,” auction house Sotheby’s said in a statement.
“The illustration was chased by four bidders on the phone and online for nearly 10 minutes before selling to applause.”
Famous cover artist’s first commission
The cover was illustrated by Thomas Taylor, who was just 23 years old when he painted the now iconic image in 1997.
The eye-watering result far exceeded Sotheby’s expectations, as it had been expected to fetch between $600,000 and $900,000.
“It’s kind of staggering, really,” Mr Taylor told The New York Times.
“It’s exciting to see it fought over.”
Mr Taylor had left art school a year early in 1996 and began working at a children’s bookstore in Cambridge, England to pay the bills.
After submitting his portfolio to Bloomsbury, publisher Barry Cunningham tapped him to paint the image for JK Rowling’s book, which was to be released in London in June.
As it was his first professional commission, Mr Taylor told The New York Times he was paid “500 British pounds” at the time, which would be about $950 today.
“People often ask why I wasn’t paralysed with the pressure of producing the cover art for one of the most famous books in the world,” Mr Taylor wrote on his website.
“But these people forget that at the time JK Rowling was as unknown as I was.”
He was one of the first people to read the book, getting an early copy of the manuscript to inform his artwork.
“He knew about the world before anybody else, and it was really up to him to think of how he visualised Harry Potter,” Sotheby’s books specialist Kalika Sands told AFP ahead of the auction.
Result exceeds previous auction
Mr Taylor, who is now a children’s book author and illustrator, said in a statement it was “exciting to see the painting that marks the very start of my career, decades later and as bright as ever.
“As I write and illustrate my own stories today, I am proud to look back on such magical beginnings.”
Mr Taylor first sold the illustration at Sotheby’s in London in 2001, where it fetched £85,750 (about $163,000 at current exchange rates) — only the first four books in the series had been published at that point.
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“At the time this seemed like an optimum moment to sell: with the new film just out, I thought the books would all be given movie tie-in covers, and my artwork quickly forgotten,” Mr Taylor wrote on Instagram last month when the auction was announced.
“That didn’t happen of course, but there was no way I would have kept the artwork till today — I would certainly have sold it long ago.
“The painting went to a private collector in the US, and vanished from sight, so I’m amazed to see it resurface, all these years later.”
Few predicted Harry Potter would become a global phenomenon, and only 500 copies of the first edition were printed, with 300 of them sent to libraries, according to Sotheby’s.
But the book soon became a runaway bestseller.
Twenty-seven years later, the so-called Potterverse features Rowling’s seven original books, a blockbuster film franchise, a critically acclaimed stage play and video games.
More than 500 million copies of the books have been sold in 80 languages.
HBO is also set to reboot the franchise for the small screen, with a television series slated for 2026.
In recent years, fans have boycotted new Harry Potter productions and products due to Rowling’s support of anti-transgender rhetoric and her notoriety as an anti-trans figure.
ABC/AFP
