A watercolour introducing the world to Harry Potter has sold at auction in New York for $1.92 million (£1.5 million), making it the most expensive memorabilia from the series ever sold.
The small painting, measuring 40cm by 28cm, was created in 1996 by a 23-year-old Thomas Taylor. Fresh out of art school, Taylor took a train from Cambridge to London in the hope of convincing some publishers to use his artwork. He went to the offices of Bloomsbury and left some sketches of dragons, and a week later Barry Cunningham, a publisher, called him.
“He said he’d seen my samples,” said Taylor, in a 2022 interview. “He had a book by an unknown author, and would I fancy doing the cover?”
That unknown author