£5,000 Auction Estimate for Withdrawn Harry Potter Library Book Bought for 30p
Richard Winterton Auctioneers
Auctioneer Richard Winterton says it will be a magical moment when the rare Harry Potter book goes under the hammer in Lichfield
Bought for 30p after being withdrawn from Wolverhampton Library, a hardback copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – the first in the original series of books by JK Rowling – is coming to auction next week with an estimate of £3,000-£5,000.
Published by Bloomsbury in 1997, the first edition, first impression with laminated boards is one of only 500 produced and, of those, one of only 300 sent to libraries. It goes under the hammer as Lot 299 in Richard Winterton Auctioneers’ Antiques & Home Sale in Staffordshire, on July 10.
Auctioneers discovered it after a painstaking search of hundreds of boxes, the personal possessions of a local man who had a lifelong passion for books and ephemera. He lived in Brereton, Rugeley, for a number of years before latterly moving to Burntwood, and passed away unexpectedly at the beginning of the year aged 55.
“What an amazing find! Withdrawn and discarded from the library, bought for 30p and now worth thousands of pounds,” said auctioneer Richard Winterton. “The book still bears its library identification, spine sticker with the letter J, subsequent withdrawal stamp and 30p selling price. It has clearly been well-read, which is most befitting of one of the initial run of books which helped fuel the early popularity of Potter.
“We have placed an estimate of £3,000 to £5,000 on the book because of its much-loved condition but other examples have fetched much more than this at auction."
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UPDATE: The ex-library book was sold for a hammer price of £10,500
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Richard Winterton
Front cover of the withdrawn book
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Richard Winterton
Back cover of the withdrawn book
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Richard Winterton
The withdrawn stamp inside the book
The owner’s sister, who asked not to be named, said: “He started dealing in books and memorabilia when he was still at school. He would go to jumble sales and church fairs and would come back with a pile of annuals or comics. He would then take them to a second-hand shop in Hednesford to sell or take them in to school to swap with friends. That was his passion from an early age onwards.”
The family knew that he had acquired a valuable Harry Potter book but feared it had gone astray.
“When he moved house four years ago he literally put everything into hundreds of boxes, many of which went into containers,” his sister added. “We knew that he had got the book but if you asked him to pinpoint it he couldn’t. So for the last four years this book has been ‘lost’ and I think we had come to the conclusion that it had disappeared into the ether somewhere."
