Book found in Edinburgh attic fetches thousands at auction
The pristine paperback copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was sold for just £4.99 when it was first published back in 1997.
Book reviewer Katrina McNichol was sent the copy in 1997 while working for a magazine in the Scottish Highlands – but never got around to reading it.
Instead, the then 24-year-old kept it in a storage box for nearly three decades until she found it recently while clearing out her loft in the Scottish Capital.
The book which was kept in mint condition was hailed as “the finest example ever to come to market” by auction experts ahead of its sale last week.
It attracted bidders from all over the world before selling to a UK buyer for a total of £17,000 at Rare Book Auctions in Lichfield, Staffs.
Book expert Jim Spencer said the result beat a previous world record for a first edition paperback which sold at the same auctioneers for £12,000 last year.
He said: “This sale blew it out of the water and, to be honest, I am not surprised. Because it had been kept in storage it was in pristine condition.
“It is amazing to think first edition Harry Potter paperbacks are now achieving almost as much as hardbacks were a decade ago.
“It sold to a private UK buyer which is good news for the homegrown book market because the biggest bids for Potter have traditionally always come in from the USA.
“The key to this auction record was the condition of the book. It was perhaps the finest example ever to come onto the market.
“It underlines the series’ growing status as one of the defining literary phenomena of the modern age.”
When J.K. Rowling’s debut novel was first published, Bloomsbury expected little demand and printed just 500 hardbacks and a little over 5,000 paperbacks – making both editions exceptionally rare.
At the time the book was sent to Katrina, the Boy Wizard was yet to find international fame, and the unread paperback languished on a pile, before ending up in storage.
The rare paperback included all the telltale signs of a genuine first edition, such as the missing ‘o’ in the word philosopher’s’ on the back cover.
Katrina, now aged 53, said: “Each week I received more than 20 titles to review, and it was impossible to feature them all.
“I’ve never quite known why I set this particular book aside, long before the Harry Potter phenomenon began, but I carried it with me from home to home with dozens of others, and I’m so glad that I did.
“I genuinely forgot it existed it. When I came across it in a box 30 years later, I did a double take.
“It felt surreal. I knew how old it was and suspected it might be worth something.
“You don’t expect to stumble across something so valuable in your own attic.
“The book deserves to be with someone who truly appreciates what it is, a small but genuine piece of publishing history.”
The book also refers to ‘Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft’ which was later changed to ‘Witchcraft and Wizardry’.
On page 53, a list of school supplies Harry receives from Hogwarts refers to item ‘1 wand’ twice – at the start and again at the end.
Charles Hanson, from Hansons Auctioneers, the parent company of Rare Book Auctions, said: “Jim has really established himself as the leading authority on Harry Potter and we were delighted to be able to offer the vendor a global platform on which to sell this remarkable book.”
