A record for a copy of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species came at Hindman’s sale of the library of a Midwestern collector in Chicago earlier this week.

Extracted from Antiques Trade Gazette | Alex Capon

Previously owned by American collector Paul Mellon (1907-99), the 1859 first edition of the seminal work on the theory of evolution was knocked down well above its $120,000-180,000 estimate at $485,000 (£377,135) at the auction on November 5.

With premium added, the price was $564,500

The sum eclipsed the previous record of $400,000 (£316,353) set by another copy that sold at Bonhams New York in June and made a huge return on this copy’s last appearance at auction when it sold for $24,200 at Sotheby’s New York in November 1989.

This copy, which retained the original green cloth and covers, was in good original condition overall although the spine and hinges had some defects.

The fact that it outsold the presentation copy in June (it lacked a publisher’s inscription that the example at Bonhams contained) suggests a strengthening at the very top of the market for the work billed by Hindman as ‘the first edition of the most important single work in science’.