Sotheby’s Auction of Signed Illustrated “Philosopher’s Stone” Exceeds Expectations

Last month, we reported that a signed Deluxe Edition of Jim Kay’s illustrated Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was to be auctioned for charity. Sotheby’s auctioned a Deluxe Edition of Philosopher’s Stone, signed by both J.K. Rowling and Jim Kay, to benefit Lumos.

The book was expected to be sold for 2,000-3,000 GBP. Not surprisingly, Harry Potter soared beyond expectations. The signed special edition book was able to raise 13,750 GBP for Lumos! We can only imagine how proud J.K. Rowling must be.

Sotheby’s gave details of the item up for auction, and the auction itself:

‘Hailed by the publishers as “the landmark publishing event of 2015”, the first full-colour illustrated edition of Rowling’s novel was released, as a trade edition, on 6 October. A sumptuous deluxe edition, in a larger format, was published on 5 November. THIS IS THE FIRST COPY OF THE DELUXE EDITION. It is accompanied by a letter of provenance from Publishing Director of Bloomsbury Children’s Books, that notes “this is the first advance copy of the Deluxe Edition. It was hand bound ahead of the binding of the rest of the print run and sent from our printer in Italy… ready for signing by J.K. Rowling and Jim Kay.”‘