DALLAS, TX.- Before the films, the theme parks and the worldwide phenomenon, there were just 500 hardcover copies. On Oct. 14, one of those first printings of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone sold for $400,000 at Heritage Auctions, achieving the second-highest auction price for the title, behind the $471,000 record Heritage established in December 2021.

The book led Heritage’s Rare Books Signature® Auction, which realized $2.158 million across 384 lots and participation from 1,077 bidders worldwide. Strong results extended from modern literary landmarks to rare early English Bibles.

“Harry Potter’s place in literary history began with an extraordinarily small hardcover printing, most of it destined for public libraries,” says Heritage Auctions Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena. “Collectors recognize how few opportunities there are to own one of those original 500 copies. This result speaks to both that scarcity and the lasting attachment readers have to the book that introduced them to Harry’s world.”

Published by Bloomsbury in 1997, the first hardcover edition is distinguished by Thomas Taylor’s cover illustration and a series of details familiar to collectors: the author’s name appears as “Joanne Rowling” on the copyright page.

“Philosopher’s” is misspelled on the rear board, and “1 wand” appears twice in the school supplies list on page 53. The copy offered at Heritage retains its original pictorial boards and is housed in a custom clamshell case by the Chelsea Bindery. The result comes as Harry’s first adventure prepares for another screen debut: HBO’s new Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone series is scheduled to premiere Christmas 2026.

Another enduring book-to-screen favorite, Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, brought $93,750. The 1930 first edition retained its exceedingly rare, unclipped first-issue dust jacket, identifiable by the plot summary on the front flap rather than the blurbs found on later printings. Hammett’s Sam Spade became one of detective fiction’s defining characters, immortalized on screen by Humphrey Bogart in John Huston’s 1941 adaptation.

A signed first edition of Frank Herbert’s Dune realized $68,750. Published by Chilton Books in 1965, the copy featured John Schoenherr’s original dust jacket in its first issue, with the $5.95 price intact. Herbert’s novel became the first to win both the Hugo and Nebula awards for Best Novel.

Two scarce works from the Estate of Robert Funk, Oklahoma, led the sale’s early English Bible offerings. A 1538 Coverdale New Testament printed in Antwerp brought $57,500. Among the earliest separate editions of Coverdale’s New Testament, it contains approximately 200 woodcut illustrations and precedes the Great Bible of 1539, for which Coverdale served as principal editor.

A first edition of Richard Taverner’s English Bible, published in London in 1539, followed at $52,500. Taverner revised the Matthew Bible of 1537, drawing on his knowledge of Greek to sharpen its language. This copy was a highlight of Funk’s collection of more than 70 early Bibles and devotional works documenting the development of Scripture in English.