ANGELA WEISS / AFP
The cover of the first edition of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” sold for $1.9 million.
AUCTION – A sum that even Gringotts Bank could not have imagined for a drawing. The watercolor that was the original cover of the very first edition ofHarry Potter to the Wizards’ schoolwas sold for 1.9 million dollars (approximately 1.77 million euros) this Wednesday, June 26 during auctions organized in the United States.
According to a press release from the auction company Sotheby’s, the illustration, which was initially estimated between $400,000 and $600,000, ultimately became the most expensive item for auction linked to the magical universe of British novelist JK Rowling.
The cover was created by the writer and illustrator Thomas Taylor in 1997. He was then 23 years old and working for a children’s bookstore in Cambridge, England. As reported by AFP, he was one of the first to read the work at the request of the first publisher ofHarry Potterwho had commissioned an illustration from him.
The drawing shows Harry Potter in front of the train Poudlard Express. In this watercolor, England’s most famous wizard wears his legendary round glasses, as well as his red and yellow striped scarf, the two colors of the Gryffindor house. The lightning-shaped scar that the young boy has on his forehead is very apparent on the cover of the first edition which appeared on June 26, 1997. This version was only printed in 500 copies. Since then, some 500 million books have been sold in 80 languages.
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