£600
8vo, pp.viii, 519, [1]. Original red cloth, blocked in blind, spine lettered direct in gilt. A touch soiled. A little shaken, boards marked and somewhat grubby, a touch of insect damage, head of spine slightly defective. Binder’s ticket of Edmonds & Remnants, London to rear pastedown, ownership inscription to title-page.
An early issue of the revised edition of Darwin's first published book. Despite the title-page advertising it as a new edition, it is an otherwise-unchanged reprint of the 1845 2nd edition, from plates. This second edition was substantially revised from its initial publication as a supplementary volume to Captain Fitzroy's 2 volume 'Narrative of the Voyages of H.M. Ships Adventure and Beagle' in 1839, and despite the addition of a new postscript in 1860 this 1845 version remained the definitive lifetime text. This issue and its immediate predecessor are issued and bound as part of publisher Murray's 'Colonial and Home Library' of cheap reprints, described by Freeman as 'a miserable piece of printing in small type with mean margins', while the 1860 edition was printed on larger paper and given a green cloth binding to match the previous year's 'On The Origin of Species' and reflects the growth in status and importance of the work and its author.
