Following the release of 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' last year, Potterheads have yet another reason to rejoice with 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' coming back in brand new covers as the book completes 20 long years.

The new books, published by Bloomsbury Publishing, are being brought out to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first book in the Potter series that was helmed by J K Rowling in 1997.

Advertisement

Illustrated by Levi Pinfold the front jackets feature the crest for each Hogwarts house in vibrant house colours, inspired from traditional heraldry and coats of arms and combined this with typical characteristics of each house to create crests that embody the values of the house.

"Publishing in celebration of the 20th anniversary, 26th June 2017, there are a complementary hardback and paperback jackets of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

"The hardbacks will be black with the house crest in a house colour and striped sprayed edges. The paperbacks will reverse the house colour theme and have single colour sprayed edges," Bloomsbury said in a statement.

Using the 'coat of arms' tradition that has historically been used to represent small towns, families, countries narrating their story through images, Pinfold has scripted an interesting tale about each house's legacy, with each crest adorned with individual nuances.

"In the Hufflepuff crest, for example, there are beech leaves to symbolize tolerance and a little lamb to show gentleness. In heraldry, gold or yellow is seen to represent generosity, which of course is perfect for the Hufflepuffs among us," Rowling writes on the Pottermore website.

Slytherin's "glory and honour" is symbolised with a cresent in the house's crest, and the green colour speaks for its members' endurance. The crest also sports a dragon-like cockatrice vindicating their fierce nature as warriors.

The red coloured Gryffindor crest is meant to signify military strength, complemented by a unicorn to symbolise purity and courage, and the antlers are for strength and agility.

"We're sure Harry would like the latter, if his Patronus is anything to go by," writes the 51-year-old author.

The Ravenclaw crest gets a parchment scroll to symbolise academic achievement, an owl for wisdom, a spearhead for sharpness of wit and a book for knowledge.

The editions, that hit stands in June this year, will also contain fascinating facts about the houses of Hogwarts, and three specially commissioned house illustrations from the illustrator per book.

With an initial hardback print run of 500 copies, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" has now sold over 90 million copies worldwide