Harry Potter sketches to draw bidders

Published on 18/04/2009 20:03

THEY are images which have entranced millions of youngsters around the world and now they are set to conjure up a bidding war in Scotland. Rare artwork for the Harry Potter books is to go under the hammer later this month.

Sketches by the acclaimed artist Cliff Wright, who illustrated the book Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, are to go on display and be put up for sale at the Glasgow Art Fair.

The pen and pencil drawings are the instantly recognisable forerunners of the images which appeared on the front and back covers of the second novel of JK Rowling's series.

The front illustration, which features the bespectacled wizard and his classmate Hermione Granger clinging to the back of hippogriff, is expected to sell for 13,000. The second sketch, which features a snarling dog, is predicted to raise 11,000.

Wright said the images were completed in 1998. "The images are part of a series of 10 which were sent to the publisher Bloomsbury as rough ideas for character development and composition," he said.

"Each drawing was submitted by fax and returned with comments. The designs were also passed on to JK Rowling for her approval and any comments passed back to me.

"On deciding the look of the characters and the picture composition, the watercolour illustration that you see on the cover was then completed, and when the book was published in the autumn of 1999 it became a global phenomenon."

Micky Middleton of art firm Red Gallery is dealing with the sale and predicted it would attract a huge amount of interest. He said: "I would encourage collectors to come and see these original works in situ at the Fair."

The Glasgow Art Fair, which is sponsored by Scotland on Sunday, will run from April 23-26.

Meanwhile, the trailer for the latest film in the series, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, has been released.