Original Harry Potter Book Cover Art Shocks, Selling for Record $1.92M

July 11, 2024

in Antique

Reading Time: 2 mins read

The unique e-book cowl illustration for the primary version of J.Okay. Rowling’s 1997 novel, “Harry Potter and the Thinker’s Stone,” bought for a shocking $1,920,000 at Sotheby’s June 26, crushing presale estimates to develop into the best quantity paid for a Harry-Potter associated merchandise.

A then unknown artist, Thomas Taylor, simply 23 and a yr faraway from artwork faculty, was paid $650 by Bloomsbury Publishing to create the watercolor portray for the primary version. Presale estimates for the art work had been between $400,000 to $600,000, based on Sotheby’s.

The unique e-book cowl illustration for the primary version of J.Okay. Rowling’s 1997 novel, “Harry Potter and the Thinker’s Stone,” bought for a shocking $1,920,000 at Sotheby’s June 26.

Picture courtesy of Sotheby's

The unique art work, which depicts the younger wizard Harry going to Hogwarts from Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross station, was a part of the non-public library of an American e-book collector and surgeon, Dr. Rodney P. Swantko. The e-book was an prompt hit. In 1998, it landed in American bookstores as “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” with a canopy illustrated by one other artist. In Britain, Bloomsbury moved on to extra skilled illustrators, so Taylor’s drawing was his solely contribution to the collection.

Artist Thomas Taylor and the unique e-book cowl illustration he created for the primary Harry Potter e-book in 1997.

Picture courtesy of Thomas Taylor and Sotheby's

Luckily, he later negotiated a bigger price for the art work, which was used for a number of abroad editions of the novel, Taylor instructed The New York Occasions. In 2001, when the e-book’s movie adaptation was being launched, he determined to promote the illustration for about $100,000 at public sale.

“I did make fairly some huge cash in the long run,” Taylor instructed The Occasions, including he was not upset that he missed out on the $1.92 million for which his drawing was bought greater than 20 years later. “I’m simply comfortable that I bought it once I did.”

This primary version of “Harry Potter and the Thinker’s Stone” bought for $471,000 in 2021.

Courtesy Heritage Auctions

The earlier report for a Harry Potter-related merchandise was held by an unsigned first version of “Harry Potter and the Thinker’s Stone,” which bought for $471,000 at Heritage Auctions in 2021. A chair that Rowling sat on whereas writing the primary two Harry Potter books bought for almost $400,000 in 2016.