March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Christie's International raised 36,560 pounds ($73,000), with fees, at a London sale of 20 lots of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, including a rare first edition of ``Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.''

The Potter action at Christie's South Kensington salesroom surpassed a low presale estimate of 20,000 pounds without fees.

It also raised questions about Christie's controls after the London-based auction house confirmed that it didn't check whether the first edition, which sold for 4,000 pounds including fees, might have been stolen from the Northamptonshire Libraries & Information Service, whose label appears on the volume.

The book also bears a barcode. At the request of Bloomberg News, the library ran the barcode number through its database and confirmed within minutes that it disposed of the book in 1999.

``Someone got lucky,'' said Northamptonshire's library- service manager, Grace Kempster, in a telephone interview. ``As long as the barcode number confirms they've been withdrawn, that's fine.''

Crispin Jackson, head of books and manuscripts at Christie's South Kensington, confirmed in an interview that his department didn't check the barcode number with the library.

``In future we'll be checking the barcode numbers with libraries,'' Jackson said.

No Dust Jacket

The first edition of ``Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' sold today has no dust jacket and no leather bindings, just the original colored board cover showing the bespectacled boy wizard (and his lightning-bolt scar) in front of the Hogwarts Express steam engine at Platform 9 3/4.

Published in 1997, the first novel in the series that turned Rowling into a billionaire was considered to have such modest prospects that Bloomsbury Publishing Plc ordered a first print run of just 500 copies. About 300 of those were distributed to libraries, Christie's said on its Web site.

Loosely inserted in the book is a slip of paper bearing Rowling's signature, which the seller won in a competition organized by the U.K.'s Sunday People newspaper in 2000.

``Like most library copies, the book has had its vicissitudes and has been restored,'' Christie's Jackson said in a phone interview before the sale. ``But this is the Harry Potter that everyone wants.''

Harry Potter collectors place a high value on signed and inscribed items, he added. ``It increases the price by at least five times,'' Jackson said.

Nanny's Lots

The current record for a single Harry Potter novel was set in May 2007, when a first edition of ``Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' sold for 27,370 pounds, with fees, at Bloomsbury Auctions Ltd., said Richard Caton, the marketing manager at the London auction house.

All 20 lots of Harry Potter books on offer today were sold, including a group of seven lots entered by a former nanny to the Rowling household. Rowling inscribed all of the books in these lots to the consignor or members of her immediate family, Christie's said. A boxed set of five deluxe editions of the Harry Potter novels from this consignor sold today for 5,000 pounds including fees, matching the presale estimated high.

Pom Harrington of London book dealer Peter Harrington purchased 13 of the 20 lots, including the boxed set, whose books Rowling had inscribed ``to Jack,'' the name of the nanny's son.

``I bought it for an American client whose son is called Jack,'' Harrington said in an interview.

The record auction price for any Rowling work is 1.95 million pounds -- the amount Amazon.com Inc. paid in December 2007 at a Sotheby's London charity auction for her handwritten volume of fairy tales, ``The Tales of Beedle the Bard.''

An inscribed 1937 first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's ``The Hobbit'' sold for 60,000 pounds yesterday at a Bonhams auction in London. The price included a 20 percent commission.

To contact the reporters on this story: Scott Reyburn in London at sreyburn@hotmail.com and James Pressley in Brussels at jpressley@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 19, 2008 09:27 EDT