Darwin, Charles
The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication
Estimate: £500 - £800
Auction: 18 June 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
London: John Murray, 1868. First edition, first issue, one of 1,500 copies, 2 volumes, 8vo, viii 411, viii 486 pp., original green cloth, both volumes with publisher's imprint 'London, John Murray' gilt-stamped in one line to foot, wood-engravings throughout the text, volume 1 with 5 errata on 6 lines, 32 pp. publisher's advertisements dated April 1867, volume 2 with 7-line errata, 2 pp. publisher's advertisements dated February 1868, a little fraying to spine-ends, rubbing and a few sections of wear to joints and tips, title-pages spotted, volume 1 with light cockling to front board, pale damp-staining to rear board, rear inner hinge superficially cracked, volume 2 with water-damage to rear board [Freeman 877] (2)
Provenance
With the ownership inscription ‘F. Archer’ to each title-page, dated 6 February 1868 in volume one. This is likely to have been Francis Archer MRCS (1803-1875) or his son, also Francis (1839-1892), both distinguished naturalists with a special interest in mollusca, and respectively a surgeon and solicitor in their professional lives. Francis senior was a founding member of Belfast Natural History Society, before moving to Liverpool, where he worked as a physician and prison surgeon. His son studied law at Trinity College Cambridge: while there 'he read Darwin's Origin of Species, and was greatly impressed by it, this helping, once again, to stimulate his appetite for natural history. He joined the Liverpool Biological Society and was soon made a member of the council as a result of his great enthusiasm and activity in this field' (F. R. Woodward, ‘The Archer Family of Liverpool and their Natural History Collections', Proceedings of the Birmingham Natural History Society, Vol. XX, No. 2, 1963, p. 4).