A rare complete set of first edition Harry Potter hardbacks each signed by author JK Rowling sold for nearly £115,000 at auction.
The “lavishly presented” set included all seven adventures featuring the boy wizard, including one of only 500 highly sought after first run copies of the original tale, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, published in 1997.
Collected over a number of years and lovingly kept, the books were among the highlights of Bonhams sale of Fine Books and Manuscripts.
They attracted numerous bids before eventually being sold to an overseas private collector for £114,700.
Luke Batterham, Senior Valuer in Bonhams’ Books and Manuscripts Department, said after the sale the lot had attracted interest from around the world.
He added: “The Harry Potter books have been part of so many peoples’ lives since they were first published.
“The huge amount of interest in this sale shows that the power of Potter is very much alive.
“It is very rare to have a whole set of first editions signed, beautifully presented and ‘ready for the shelf’, partly because the earliest books were printed in such small numbers.
“The elusive, very rare edition of the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ is the pinnacle for any collector.”
JK Rowling famously wrote most of the debut Potter book, along with the rest of the series, in cafes in Edinburgh.
She has claimed the book “changed my life forever”.
The classic first novel, published by Bloomsbury in 1997, introduced millions of readers to Harry, the young wizard who discovers his magical heritage after his parents were killed by the evil Lord Voldemort.
The books also introduced fans to Harry’s friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and the sport of Quidditch.
Experts have described the series, published over a decade, as “the most important and influential children’s books of the late-twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries”.
The seven books sold included the rare first printing of Rowling’s award-winning debut Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone; her 1998 follow-up Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban published in 1999; and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire published in 2000.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix — the longest of the books with 766 pages — was followed by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; and the final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which sold 11 million copies within 24 hours of its release on 21 July 2007.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was inscribed to “Mel”, while the final book was inscribed “To Lindsey” at the top of the title-page.
