The original watercolor illustration for the cover of Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone, the first book in author J.K. Rowling’s famous series, is now the most expensive piece of Potter-related memorabilia ever sold at auction.
The illustration was on the debut edition of the 1997 novel. It has now been sold for $1.9 million by Sotheby’s New York, but not before a four-way bidding battle that lasted almost 10 minutes.
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Thomas Taylor was the artist who painted the image. It depicts Harry Potter on Platform 9¾, awaiting his first ride on the Hogwarts Express.
Taylor completed the painting in just two days using concentrated watercolors on cold-pressed watercolor paper with black pencil. He was paid $650 for his efforts.
A first edition copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was the previous record-holder. It sold for $421,000 at Heritage Auctions in Dallas in 2021.
Taylor’s illustration sold for almost four-times the expected amount of between $400,000 and $600,000.
Sotheby’s said it was the “highest pre-sale estimate ever placed on an item of any Harry Potter-related work.”
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