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The original watercolor illustration for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone sold for a record-breaking US$1.9 million on Wednesday, becoming the most valuable Harry Potter item ever sold at auction.
Thomas Taylor’s artwork, which sold at Sotheby’s in New York, was featured on the covers of the first edition of the 1997 novel. Prior to the auction, its price estimate was between US$400,000 and US$600,000—the highest pre-sale estimate ever placed on a Harry Potter-related item.
The…
The original watercolor illustration for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone sold for a record-breaking US$1.9 million on Wednesday, becoming the most valuable Harry Potter item ever sold at auction.
Thomas Taylor’s artwork, which sold at Sotheby’s in New York, was featured on the covers of the first edition of the 1997 novel. Prior to the auction, its price estimate was between US$400,000 and US$600,000—the highest pre-sale estimate ever placed on a Harry Potter-related item.
The illustration was first offered at auction in 2001 at Sotheby’s in London, where it sold for a then-record £85,750 (US$121,431 at the time).
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Taylor was just 23 and working in a bookshop when he received his first professional commission to create a cover for J.K. Rowling’s first novel. Taylor came up with the first-ever depiction of Harry Potter, which has now become the universal image for the iconic character.
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The previous record for a Harry Potter auction item was set in 2021 when an unsigned first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone sold for US$421,000 at Heritage Auctions in Dallas. A handwritten copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard by Rowling sold in a charity auction at Sotheby’s in 2007 for £1.95 million, however the copy had been produced specifically to raise money for the author’s charity, Lumos, which supports the end of the institutionalization of children worldwide.
The cover art sold as part of the Library of Dr. Rodney P. Swantko, a significant collection of 19th- and 20th-century English and American literature, according to Sotheby’s.
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