Potterheads, Original Harry Potter Artwork Illustration Fetches $1.9 Million At US Auction

More than two decades ago, the first edition of the UK’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published by Bloomsbury. Since then the story of The Boy Who Lived has become an all-encompassing phenomenon, going through publishing, fandom, children’s literature and all of pop culture, becoming a worldwide sensation. After years of maintaining a cult status among Potterheads, the original illustration for the first edition of the book has been sold, fetching a price of $1.9 million at a US auction. It was expected to sell for between $4,00,000 and $6,00,000, the highest pre-sale estimate for Harry Potter-related artwork.

The artwork was sold for more than three times the expected price. It was auctioned for the first time in 2001, before the book series was completed, for a cost of $108,000 (approximately Rs 90 lakh).

Speaking on the same, Kalika Sands from Sotheby’s auction house said, “This is really the first visualization of Harry and the wizarding world,” as quoted by the BBC. The auction house, which even oversees the recent sale, highlights the dramatic increase as a testament to the series’ enduring global phenomenon.

The artwork in question depicted the iconic scene from the first book, showing the young wizard standing in front of the Hogwarts Express, preparing for his inaugural journey to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This cover illustration was used for numerous translated editions of the book, though notably absent from the US edition, which was titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

“Illustrator Thomas Taylor was the first person to give ‘the boy who lived’ a public face, establishing the way the world would see Harry Potter, complete with his trademark dark hair, round glasses, and lightning bolt scar,” the auction house stated in its Instagram post. Taylor, who created the iconic image in 1997 at the age of 23, used concentrated watercolours with black pencil outlines. It took him two days to finish the work.

“In the intervening decades, it’s been extraordinary to witness not just the conclusion of Harry’s story but also the remarkable rise of the Harry Potter franchise. During this time, new generations have come to appreciate Harry and his journey,” said Ms Sands.