WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Antiques Roadshow.
An Antiques Roadshow guest couldn’t help but smile at the price tag given to her daughter’s “shockingly bad” Harry Potter book.
Visiting Thirlestane Castle in the Scottish Borders, BBC expert Matthew Haley met with two individuals who brought along their children’s first editions of Harry Potter books by author JK Rowling.
While the man brought in a signed copy of the second book in the series, Chamber of Secrets, the woman handed over her signed edition of the fourth novel, Goblet Of Fire.
The first guest said that he got the Chamber of Secrets signed by the author herself during the Edinburgh Book Festival at a reading where only around 30 children attended.
Meanwhile, the owner of the Goblet of Fire copy said she got the book in July 2000 during a signing in Edinburgh for her daughter’s birthday as she thought it would be a “lovely present”.
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BBC)
Haley commented: “You’ve both got brilliant provenance, there are so many JK Rowling fake signatures around. You both know where you were and when they were signed.”
He then said that he needed to discuss “condition”, with the woman letting out a little laugh.
Before addressing her novel, Haley turned his attention to the dad, stating: “Your Chamber of Secrets is in pretty good condition, it’s got a slightly faded spine as often happens, the dust jacket is a bit bumped but it is as I would expect to see it.”
As the expert paused, the woman joked: “Here we come”, with Haley going on to criticise her book’s condition.
He said: “Your Goblet Of Fire, it’s been annotated here ‘JK Rowling’ in case you couldn’t read it.
“And then here, ‘My new signature, do you like it?’ And then she goes to the back and writes ‘This is an amazing book! You must read it!’”, causing the audience to laugh.
The guest then shrugged as he said: “It really shows enthusiasm for the Harry Potter series but it obviously does affect the value.”
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BBC)
For the first of the two books, Haley summarised: “So your Chamber of Secrets, it’s the second book in the series, it’s rarer, it’s in nicer condition I’m going to say at auction that one will be worth something about £3,000.”
Then moving onto the less than perfect Goblet of Fire copy: “Yours is less rare, because it’s further in the series so there were more copies printed, JK Rowling was more popular and the condition is really shockingly bad.
“It’s really difficult to say in this condition but something between £500 and £1,000.”
Smiling, the guest replied: “Well that’s still very, very good, thank you.”
Haley added: “And it’s amazing that you’ve both brought them and we can do them together.”
Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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