Two 1859 firsts of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species…, neither in what could be called good condition, made very strong prices in recent weeks. This is a book nowadays so desirable that such shortcomings can be overlooked.
Estimated at £20,000-30,000 in a Bonhams (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) Knightsbridge sale of June 21 was the copy pictured left, with a dampstained upper cover and one gathering now slightly loose. However, the title-page bears an 1859 ownership inscription of Charles Gatty, a Fellow of both the Linnaean and the Royal Geographical Societies whose interests included both zoology and geology. It made £84,000.