New | Flash from Hogwarts -- Chair used by J.K. Rowling to write about wizard Harry Potter sold at auction for US$394,000

The humble chair J.K. Rowling sat on while writing the first two books of the Harry Potter series was auctioned in New York City on Wednesday for US$394,000.

An anonymous private collector made the winning bid, Heritage Auctions said.

The chair is one of four mismatched chairs given to the then little-known writer for her flat in Edinburgh, Scotland, and which she used while writing “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” and “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.”

The seller, Gerald Gray, of Worsley, England, said the winning bid far exceeded his expectations.

The unassuming 1930s-era oak chair with a replacement burlap seat decorated with a red thistle sat in front of Rowling’s typewriter when she was “writing two of the most important books of the modern era,” said James Gannon, director of rare books at Heritage Auctions.

The chair was auctioned before — once by Rowling herself to benefit a charity in 2002 where it fetched $21,000, and on eBay in 2009 where it brought $29,000.