Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone drawing sells for $1.9million
An original watercolour illustration for the first edition of Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone painted by a 23-year-old artist has sold for a record amount at a New York auction.
The artwork for the cover of the first book in the series by JK Rowling fetched $1.9 million at a sale by Sotheby’s auction house in New York on Wednesday.
The first edition copy of Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone is the most valuable Harry Potter item ever sold at an auction from the fantasy series, according to Sotheby’s.
The new sale of the illustration, by Taylor, which featured on the debut edition of the novel in 1997 was involved in a four-way between bidders for nearly 10 minutes before selling for the record amount.
The painting had previously sold for $421,000 US dollars at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, in December 2021.
Original watercolour for Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone
First edition cover of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter in Warner Bros. Pictures’ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
It had an estimate of $400,000-$600,000, which Sotheby’s claims is the ‘highest pre-sale estimate ever placed on an item of any Harry Potter-related work’.
The watercolour was first offered at auction in 2001 at Sotheby’s London, when only the first four books in the series were published.
At the time, the iconic depiction of the budding wizard, with his dark hair, round glasses and lightning bolt scar, on his way to Hogwarts on board the train, was estimated at £20,000 to £25,000 before being sold at £85,750.
Taylor, who went on to write the children’s series Erie-On-Sea, had his first professional commission with Harry Potter at the age of 23.
After being asked to illustrate the character by Barry Cunningham at Bloomsbury, Taylor took two days to complete the illustration.
The artwork for the cover of the first book in the series, by JK Rowling, fetched 1.9 million US dollars (£1.5 million) at a sale by Sotheby’s auction house in New York on Wednesday
He used concentrated watercolours on cold-pressed watercolour paper and outlined with black Karisma pencil.
Taylor was among the first to read the manuscript for The Philosopher’s Stone.
The Harry Potter book series went on to be turned into a film series consisting of eight movies which were produced by Warner Bros.
It starred Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint.
It is the fourth-highest-grossing film series, with $7.7 billion in global receipts.
