J.K. Rowling Fairy Tale Sells for 1.95 Million Pounds

J.K. Rowling's handwritten book of fairy tales sold for 1.95 million pounds ($3.98 million) at a London charity sale.

Sotheby's top estimate for ``The Tales of Beedle the Bard,'' one of seven copies made after Rowling finished her last Harry Potter book, was 50,000 pounds. The money will go to the Children's Voice, a charity co-founded by Rowling and Emma Nicholson, a member of the U.K. House of Lords.

The buyer was Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, an old-master dealership with many collector clients, Sotheby's said. The auction house took no commission on the proceeds, which exceeded the top estimate 39 times as about six bidders were winnowed down to two.

``It's charity, it's unique, and two people wanted it,'' said Ian Barnes, managing director of Temple Bookbinders in Oxford, England, who bid up to 1.9 million pounds for a client, he said.

Sotheby's book sale included half a dozen other Rowling items, such as drawings and first editions of Potter books. At least three of the lots didn't sell.

Harry's Success

Rowling, 42, is the only billionaire author on Forbes magazine's 2007 list of the U.K.'s wealthiest people. More than 350 million Potter books are in print worldwide, and Potter films have grossed $3.5 billion, Forbes said in March.

Sotheby's, the world's second-largest auction house, has its main salerooms in New York. The price for the leather-bound fairy tale, illustrated by Rowling with ink drawings, was a record for the author, for a children's book and for any modern literary manuscript, Sotheby's said. Manuscripts by living authors are rare in the auction room.

Christie's International will offer a set of four signed first editions of Potter novels at a top estimate of 50,000 pounds in London on Dec. 19. The record for a single Potter novel was set in May, when ``Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' sold for 27,370 pounds at London's Bloomsbury Auctions.