Early Darwin book fetches £15,000

Friday 12th June 2009, 12:06AM BST.

A first edition of Shrewsbury-born scientist Charles Darwin’s ground-breaking work On The Origin Of Species has sold for more than £15,000 at auction.

The book was auctioned to mark the 150th anniversary of its publication and the 200th anniversary of the birth of Darwin. Only 1,250 were produced in the book’s first print run back in 1859 and it transformed science with its theories on evolution and natural selection. A first edition sold in Norfolk in April fetched £35,000.

The rare copy auctioned which sold yesterday for £15,625 at auction was found in a family home near Inverness.

It fetched just more than its estimated value of £10,000 to £15,000 when it went under the hammer at auctioneers Lyon and Turnbull in Edinburgh.

Book specialist Simon Vickers said: “It has been in the family a long time. The family have no known connection to Darwin, and it may have been bought on its first publication.”

It was bought by a collector from the south of England.

This year marks the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth. When the scientist died in 1882 he was given a state funeral and buried in Westminster Abbey.

View more: Charles Darwin news, Shrewsbury news.