$1.9M Illustration for 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' Breaks Record at Sotheby's

Taylor’s work, featured on the covers of the first edition of the novel in 1997, was estimated to fetch $400,000 to $600,000, marking the highest pre-sale estimate ever placed on an item of any Harry Potter-related work. The illustration was sold as part of The Library of Dr. Rodney P. Swantko, a significant library of nineteenth- and twentieth-century English and American literature. This morning the sale achieved $6M in New York, exceeding its $5.8M high estimate.

The iconic illustration was first offered at auction back in 2001 at Sotheby’s London, and was estimated to fetch between £20,000 and £25,000 — at the time, the highest estimate placed on any Harry Potter-related material. The illustration realized a record-breaking £85,750, and now, more than 20 years later, the original illustration returned to auction to set a record once again.

At just 23 years old, Taylor’s first professional commission as a budding illustrator was the then-unremarkable responsibility of being the first artist to visualize the as-yet-unknown character, Harry Potter. The assignment came from Barry Cunningham at Bloomsbury for a novel by an unpublished author by the name of Jo Rowling. With over 500 million copies sold worldwide and translations in 80 languages, the series has become a global phenomenon. Taylor’s first-ever depiction of the boy wizard, coined the “universal image” of Harry Potter himself, complete with his trademark dark hair, round glasses, and lightning bolt scar, depicted using concentrated watercolors on cold pressed watercolor paper and outlined with black Karisma pencil. 

Taylor never ended up purchasing a copy of the first edition of the book that launched the famous series. While he was working in the bookshop, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone became a major seller, and Taylor’s colleagues would enthusiastically inform customers that their local bookseller was the illustrator of the new sensation. Often, shoppers would be in disbelief that an illustrator of this success would be working at their local bookstore. Taylor’s work quickly became a globally known image, with most major international publishers using Taylor’s cover for translated versions of the book, though it was not used for the American edition (which was published under the title, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone).

Main Image :Thomas Taylor, Illustration for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997.