Auction in New York for the cover of the first book in the Harry Potter series

 

The original drawing that appeared on the cover of the first edition of the first part of the "Harry Potter" book series will be sold Wednesday at a public auction organized by Sotheby's in New York, with an estimated price of about half a million dollars.

In 1997, 23-year-old illustrator Thomas Taylor, who was working in a children's library in the British city of Cambridge, was given the task of preparing a watercolor drawing for the cover of the book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", which was to be published in London on June 26, 1997.

This novel by British author Jay Kay Rowling was followed by other installments, seven to date, translated into 80 languages and selling at least 500 million copies over the course of 27 years, six of which included films, a play and a video game.

Kalika Sands, a specialist in old books at Sotheby's auction house, pointed out that the painter Thomas Taylor was one of the first to read the manuscript of the first book, at the request of Barry Cunningham of the small Bloomsbury publishing house.

Guess the price of Taylor's original watercolor, which will go up for sale on June 26, is between $400,000 and $600,000.

Sands explained, "It is the first visual representation of the wizarding world" created by the "Harry Potter" novels, in which the young wizard appeared with his round glasses, a lightning bolt scar on his forehead and his scarf as he boarded the "Hogwarts Express.

In a statement released by Sotheby's, Thomas Taylor, who was completely unknown to Rowling in 1997, was quoted as saying, "It is exciting to see the painting that marked the beginning of my career still shining decades later. He expressed his happiness that his drawing "has become a famous image" of the character Harry Potter, which has achieved great international success.

The drawing previously sold for 85,750 British pounds (about $108,500 at today's exchange rate).

In addition to the watercolors, the auction will include old manuscripts and rare editions by giants of 19th and early 20th century British and American literature, such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, Francis Scott Fitzgerald and Edgar Allan Poe.

These books are part of a distinguished collection owned by American surgeon Rodney F. Swanko, who died in 2022 at the age of 82, and it is not unlikely that the auction for them will witness the setting of new records.