The watercolor of the original cover of ‘harry potter and the Philosopher’s Stone‘, the first image ever conceived of the ‘boy who lived’, will be released auction in New York on June 26 from the house of Sotheby’s.
The illustration, prepared in 1997 by the British artist Thomas Taylorwill be auctioned with an estimated price of between 400,000 and 600,000 dollars (between 370,000 and 560,000 euros), thus becoming the ‘Harry Potter’ item with the most expensive starting price at auction. In 2001, when only four volumes of the saga had been published, the painting was auctioned in London for 85,750 pounds (about 100,000 euros).
The design shows a disoriented harry potter in the famous platform 9 and three quarterswith the ‘Hogwarts Express’ behind him and a scarf in the colors of ‘Gryffindor’, the house to which the character belongs in the magic school.
This is the first image of Harry Potter that the world saw, and it comes directly from the imagination of thomas taylorone of the first people to read the book before its publication under the English publisher Bloomsbury.
To show the publisher that he had read the story, the illustrator decided to include a little clue on the cover: “When you look at his scarf, you realize that wears the distinctive colors of Gryffindorbut on the platform it has not yet gone through the sorting hat,” Kalika Sands, Sotheby’s international specialist in books and manuscripts, explains to EFE.
global phenomenon
Although JK Rowling’s project had been rejected by a dozen publishers at the time, ‘Harry Potter’ ended up becoming a global phenomenon who sold some 500 million copies worldwide and was translated into 80 languages.
“The saga is historical. I think the best thing about it is that there is a whole new generation of readers who continue to read it. In the years that have passed since the illustration was made, ‘Harry Potter’ has created his own world“says the Sotheby’s expert.
The watercolor is part of the collection of Rodney P. Swantko, an American dentist who was also a “fantastic collector of rarities” that will also go up for auction, like some Edgar Allan Poe manuscripts or the first edition of ‘beautiful and cursed‘, by renowned writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.
“The fact that he collected this kind of thing and at the same time recognized ‘Harry Potter’ as something special is a real credit to his eye as a collector,” Sands says.
From its bookstore, Sotheby’s will also auction a copy of ‘The Tales of Beedle the Bard‘, handwritten by JK Rowling herself, as well as one of the first 500 hardcover copies of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’.
