Charles Darwin book sells for £140,000
A rare first edition of Charles Darwin's On The Origin Of Species has sold for nearly £140,000 at auction in America – after originally costing the equivalent of about 75p.
The book, written by the Shrewsbury-born botanist, was published in 1859 and expected to fetch between £65,000 and £98,000 before the auction at Sotheby's in New York on Tuesday, but eventually it sold for £136, 557. The rare copy once belonged to Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, who was Governor of South Australia between 1895 and 1899.
An auction house spokesman said that the copy was in "fine" condition and its "distinguished provenance" would have further boosted its value.
Darwin's book, first published when the botanist was 50, has been described as "the most influential scientific work of the 19th century and the most important biological work ever written".
When it was first published on November 24,1859 it cost just 15 shillings, 75p in modern money.
Only 1,250 first edition copies were printed and of those only 1,170 were available for sale and were quickly snapped up.
