STOP PRESS - BREAKING NEWS - THIS STORY JUST IN FROM LONDON
SOTHEBY’S TO AUCTION NEVER-BEFORE-TOLD WIZARDING STORIES BY JK ROWLING
- Hand-written copy to be sold to raise money for The Children’s Voice charity -
ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2007, Sotheby’s will sell a unique copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, created, hand-written and illustrated by JK Rowling. The volume of previously untold stories will be auctioned to raise money for The Children’s Voice – the charity JK Rowling co-founded in 2005 with Emma Nicholson MEP, which campaigns to make life better for vulnerable children across Europe.
Containing clues that were to prove crucial to Harry Potter’s final mission to destroy Lord Voldemort’s Horcruxes, The Tales of Beedle the Bard is the volume of five wizarding fairy-tales left to Hermione Granger by Albus Dumbledore in the seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Only one – The Tale of the Three Brothers – is recounted in the book. Now, for the first time, JK Rowling reveals the four remaining tales.
JK Rowling says: “The Tales of Beedle the Bard is really a distillation of the themes found in the Harry Potter books, and writing it has been the most wonderful way to say goodbye to a world I have loved and lived in for 17 years.”
Bound in brown morocco leather, and mounted with hand-chased silver ornaments and seven moonstones, the volume of five stories is one of just seven individual copies - each quite different from the other - hand-written and illustrated by JK Rowling. In a dedication written in the front of the book, she says: “Six of these books have been given to those most closely connected to the Harry Potter books during the last 17 years. This seventh copy will be auctioned; the proceeds to help institutionalised children who are in desperate need of a voice. So to whoever now owns this book, thank you – and fair fortune be yours!”
Sotheby’s believe that the work will realise a price in the region of £30,000-50,000. All proceeds from the sale will enable The Children’s Voice to transform the lives of thousands of vulnerable children. The charity campaigns for child rights across Europe – particularly Eastern Europe – where over a million children and teenagers are growing up in institutions, often in unacceptable conditions. One of its central aims is to move children out of institutions and into loving families, by building systems to ensure parents can care for their own children and by improving national fostering and adoption programmes for children who are separated from their families.
Dr. Philip Errington, Deputy Director, Sotheby’s Books and Manuscripts department said: “This is a tremendously exciting and unprecedented occasion for Sotheby’s. We are naturally delighted that a phenomenally successful living author should choose Sotheby’s to auction an unpublished manuscript. This is the first time such an extensive manuscript by JK Rowling has been offered for sale at auction and we are privileged to be associated with the author’s farewell to the world of Harry Potter."
Prior to the sale on December 13th, Harry Potter fans will be able to view The Tales of Beedle the Bard at Sotheby’s in London from Sunday, December 9th until Wednesday, December 12th.
A special auction catalogue will be produced for The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which will be available to pre-order online at www.sothebys.com or by calling +44 207 293 6444.
- Hand-written copy to be sold to raise money for The Children’s Voice charity -
ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2007, Sotheby’s will sell a unique copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, created, hand-written and illustrated by JK Rowling. The volume of previously untold stories will be auctioned to raise money for The Children’s Voice – the charity JK Rowling co-founded in 2005 with Emma Nicholson MEP, which campaigns to make life better for vulnerable children across Europe.
Containing clues that were to prove crucial to Harry Potter’s final mission to destroy Lord Voldemort’s Horcruxes, The Tales of Beedle the Bard is the volume of five wizarding fairy-tales left to Hermione Granger by Albus Dumbledore in the seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Only one – The Tale of the Three Brothers – is recounted in the book. Now, for the first time, JK Rowling reveals the four remaining tales.
JK Rowling says: “The Tales of Beedle the Bard is really a distillation of the themes found in the Harry Potter books, and writing it has been the most wonderful way to say goodbye to a world I have loved and lived in for 17 years.”
Bound in brown morocco leather, and mounted with hand-chased silver ornaments and seven moonstones, the volume of five stories is one of just seven individual copies - each quite different from the other - hand-written and illustrated by JK Rowling. In a dedication written in the front of the book, she says: “Six of these books have been given to those most closely connected to the Harry Potter books during the last 17 years. This seventh copy will be auctioned; the proceeds to help institutionalised children who are in desperate need of a voice. So to whoever now owns this book, thank you – and fair fortune be yours!”
Sotheby’s believe that the work will realise a price in the region of £30,000-50,000. All proceeds from the sale will enable The Children’s Voice to transform the lives of thousands of vulnerable children. The charity campaigns for child rights across Europe – particularly Eastern Europe – where over a million children and teenagers are growing up in institutions, often in unacceptable conditions. One of its central aims is to move children out of institutions and into loving families, by building systems to ensure parents can care for their own children and by improving national fostering and adoption programmes for children who are separated from their families.
Dr. Philip Errington, Deputy Director, Sotheby’s Books and Manuscripts department said: “This is a tremendously exciting and unprecedented occasion for Sotheby’s. We are naturally delighted that a phenomenally successful living author should choose Sotheby’s to auction an unpublished manuscript. This is the first time such an extensive manuscript by JK Rowling has been offered for sale at auction and we are privileged to be associated with the author’s farewell to the world of Harry Potter."
Prior to the sale on December 13th, Harry Potter fans will be able to view The Tales of Beedle the Bard at Sotheby’s in London from Sunday, December 9th until Wednesday, December 12th.
A special auction catalogue will be produced for The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which will be available to pre-order online at www.sothebys.com or by calling +44 207 293 6444.
Copies will also be available at Sotheby’s galleries in London and New York. The catalogue will be priced at £8 by mail order and £6 in the galleries. All profits from its sale will also be donated to The Children’s Voice.
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