Original Harry Potter cover art by Thomas Taylor sells for $1.92 million at Sotheby's.
Record-breaking auction price marks a 400% value increase since 2021.
Art sold for 1600% more than its initial 2001 auction price of ~$125,000.
Thomas Taylor's early Harry Potter commission highlights his artistic career.
The original artwork by Thomas Taylor for the original cover of JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone from 1997 has sold at auction for $1.92 million, the most expensive item from the Harry Potter franchise ever sold at auction. The watercolour art, painted on cold-pressed watercolour paper and outlined with black Karisma pencil, was sold at Sotheby's auction house this week, after selling for $421,000 at Heritage Auctions in Dallas two and a half years ago, in December 2021. That represents a 400% increase in value over two-plus years, a remarkable investment in that time period.
It only had an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000, from Sotheby's. Even at that price, it would have been the "highest pre-sale estimate ever placed on an item of any Harry Potter-related work". But it went for a lot more. The bidding lasted ten minutes between four rival buyers.
The artwork was originally offered at auction in 2001 at Sotheby's London, when only the first Harry Potter four books had been published, with an estimate of £20,000 to £25,000 before being sold at £85,750 – then around $125,000. That would make it around 1600% increase in value over that period.
The artwork was owned by private owners, so artist Thomas Taylor won't have seen a penny of that increase. It has, however, drawn a spotlight on the rest of his work. professional commission with Harry Potter at the age of 23, and the cover took him two days after being asked to illustrate the character by the publisher Barry Cunningham at Bloomsbury. He went on to write his own children's series Eerie-on-Sea.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone cover artwork from 1997 by Thomas Taylor
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone cover artwork back
"Single sheet of watercolor paper (401 x 282 mm). Pencil and watercolor, signed and dated ("Thomas Taylor 1997") on the verso, captioned and signed again on accompanying cover sheet; faintest color variation to edges, tape remnants to edges or verso, not affecting image."
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