(New York) The watercolor behind the cover of the first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the start of the globally successful saga, was sold on Wednesday for $1.9 million at a auctions held in the United States.
Created by Thomas Taylor in 1997, the drawing shows the young boy in front of the Hogwarts Express train, wearing his round glasses, his red and yellow striped scarf and his scar on his forehead.
Initially estimated at between $400,000 and $600,000, the watercolor on Wednesday became the most expensive item for auctions linked to the world of J.K. Rowling, according to a press release from Sotheby’s.
Thomas Taylor was 23 when, as an employee of a children’s bookstore in Cambridge, England, he was one of the first to read the work at the request of the first Harry Potter publisher, who had commissioned an illustration from him.
This first edition, published on June 26, 1997, had a print run of 500 copies.
Since then, some 500 million books have been sold in 80 languages.