Heritage Auctions' offering of rare books, hosted in Dallas, set a world record when it sold 1 of 500 original, first-edition copies of J.K. Rawiling's "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" for $81,250, more than the quadrupled price of its pre-auction estimate.
This volume also set a world record for the highest price paid for an unsigned work of fiction published in the last 50 years.
“This recent copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone surpassed the earlier record of approximately $60,000 by more than 30 percent. It very well may be the highest price obtained at auction for any unsigned work of literature published in the past 50 yearsm,” said James Gannon, Heritage Auctions Rare Books Director.
Along with this, other top lots included the 1919 first edition of T.S. Eliot's "Ara Vos Prec" which sold for $57,500. Dashiell Hammett's 1929 first edition of "Red Harvest" went for the auction price of $50,625. The 1926 edition of Ernest Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" sold for $50,000.
"We are very pleased with the performance of genre fiction in our auction, contiuing the successes in science fiction, fantasy and mystery and dectective literature," said Gannon.
