First edition, first printing hardback copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, 1997, sold for £42,000 at Hansons.
Recent results include a ...Philosopher’s Stone from the first book run in 1997 which was spotted in a bargain bucket in a shop in the Scottish Highlands 26 years ago.
The hardback copy was bought for £10 and the buyer even managed to get £2 knocked off the price. She kept in a cupboard under the stairs for years until consigning it to Hansons on December 11 where it was offered with an estimate of £40,000-60,000.
Fresh to the market and, said Hansons, a “fantastically well-preserved example”, it sold instead at Bishton Hall in Staffordshire for £42,000 (or £55,104 including premium) to a private UK online bidder.
Key to its value was the fact it is one of the ‘holy grails’ for Potter book collectors: one of the first 500 hardbacks printed, 300 of which went to schools and libraries in order to reach a bigger audience with this copy one of the even scarcer 200 that went to bookshops.
The vendor, who lives just north of Edinburgh where JK Rowling wrote the first Potter book, said: “My children read something online years back about how to identify first editions and told me they thought we had one of them.
“But I said the edition was worthless due to it having no dust jacket. Sometime later I learned the book was never released with a dust jacket. At that point, we stored the book away. It lived like the young Harry Potter did, in the cupboard under the stairs.
“I forgot about it for a long time but then read about the rarity of first editions.”
Uncorrected proof of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), a scarce first state in purple wrappers thought to be one of only 50 in existence, sold for £11,600 at Hansons.
In the same sale an uncorrected proof of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), a scarce first state in purple wrappers thought to be one of only 50 in existence, sold for £11,600 against a guide of £6000-8000.
Making the difference
Provenance, annotations, inscriptions and dedications count a lot when it comes to the Harry Potter book market.
At Bonhams in Knightsbridge on November 14, a first edition, first printing hardback copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, 1997, which had failed to sell at £80,000-120,000 sold post-sale for around £65,000 hammer.
Although this copy was not signed, it had a significant provenance, being the literary agent Christopher Little’s copy which he had presented to his friend Philip Nicholson, better known as AJ Quinnell, the author who had helped launch Little’s career as a literary agent and which ultimately led to Little’s discovery of JK Rowling. The rest, as they say, is history.
Four figure Potters
Back of a Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, first paperback edition, first printing, 1997, sold for £6500 at Hansons.
The Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, first paperback edition, first printing, 1997, can be valuable to the tune of four figure results at auction but usually nowhere near the level of the hardback first 500 copies.
For example, the copy offered at Chiswick Auctions in west London on November 29 sold for £6500 (£8125 with premium) against a guide of £4000-6000.
On the same estimate, a hardback Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, first edition, second printing, 1997 realised £6000 (£7500 with premium).
