LETTERS written by the national bard and a signed copy of the first Harry Potter novel are among the lots up for sale on Wednesday at Lyon & Turnbull’s online auction.
The auctioneer said that one of the highlights of its sale is a signed letter from Robert Burns to his “kind funny friend” Francis Grose regarding his Tam O’Shanter verse.
The handwritten letter is expected to sell for between £9,000 and £12,000.
Another letter – written to Burns’ friend James Smith in Mauchline about the poet’s views on sex and marriage – could fetch between £8,000 and £12,000.
Other lots in the sale include one of only 500 first edition, first impression hardbacks of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling’s maiden outing for the boy wizard, which was published in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Three hundred of the books were given to libraries, and only a handful were signed by Rowling with messages for family, friends and aquaintances.
The book is forecast to sell for between £80,000 and £120,000.
“At auction, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has reached high acclaim,” said Lyon & Turnbull.
“Since 2016, signed copies of the first edition have risen in value from £46,000 to $130,000 in 2018.
“The high collector’s value of a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone reflects JK Rowling’s vast commercial success, named by Forbes as 2019’s highest-paid author.”
Read more auction stories on Scottish Field’s arts and antiques pages.
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