The Original ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ Cover Art Could Fetch $600k at Auction

In the 1990s, Thomas Taylor, a recent art school graduate, was working at a children’s bookshop in Cambridge in the U.K. when he received his first professional commission to create cover art for a new work of children’s fiction. Unbeknownst to the 23-year-old aspiring illustrator, his work would go on to become one of the most well-known book covers in recent history.

The novel in question was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first wizarding world book from then-unknown author J.K. Rowling. Taylor’s cover...