A rare collection of fairytales handwritten by J.K. Rowling as a gift to her Harry Potter publisher sold for nearly 370,000 pounds ($469,000) at a UK auction on Tuesday.

The copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard reached 368,750 pounds in the sale at Sotheby's auction house in London.

The collection of fairytales was created within the Harry Potter series and helped the young wizard and his friends defeat his nemesis Lord Voldemort.

The copy auctioned this week was given in 2007 to publisher Barry Cunningham, who gave his backing to the first Harry Potter book.

"To Barry, the man who thought an overlong novel about a boy wizard in glasses might just sell... THANK YOU," Rowling wrote at the front of the book.

The collection is bejeweled with semi-precious stones and features a sterling silver mounted skull on the cover.