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The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter Five - Diagon Alley

Ollivander is well-known and highly respected within the magical community, and the sign above the door seems sufficient to attract Muggle parents to the shop to buy a wand.

Is there anything remarkable about the wand or is it just rather lackluster window dressing?

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    You mean more special than being the only wand in the window? IIRC Olivander's shop was rather unimpressive through and through. But when you've got a local monopoly on wands, I guess it doesn't matter much what your store looks like, since everyone will have to come to you anyway.
    – Xantec
    May 21, 2014 at 17:30
  • @Xantec Yes. I'm wondering if there's any particular reason that that particular wand was chosen for display in the window. May 21, 2014 at 17:38

2 Answers 2

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From the description, the wand appears to be a display model advertising the contents of the shop.

Per the set-detail photo below (from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone) there is actually a second wand, similar in length and size sitting on a second identical cushion as well as four wands arranged on wand display racks in each window.

The implication from both the book and the film is that these are merely a selection of hand-crafted 'Fine Wands'

Ollivander's

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We don't know anything else about it. A more average story would have used the "Chekov's Gun" approach, and that wand would have some greater significance - it would have been Harry's, or one of his friends, or maybe even Draco's, or possibly even the Elder wand itself. There's also a possibility that there was originally a story beyond that wand that was cut from the story during JK's editing process. As far as I know, it hasn't been mentioned in any of the supplementals.

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