£500
8vo, pp. xv, [i], 519, [1], 32 (ads). Original green cloth by Edmonds & Remnants, boards blocked in blind, spine blocked in gilt, brown endpapers. A little minor spotting, contents leaves toned. Extremities bumped, spine darkened and torn at head, boards a little marked and endpapers rubbed. Newspaper clipping tipped to front flyleaf.
An early issue of the definitive edition of Darwin's first published book, containing his final additions to the text. Originally published in 1839, the extensively revised second edition followed in 1845 and was reprinted several times, all in a small-format Colonial and Home Library series. For this edition the stereotypes of the text are printed on larger paper and Darwin adds a new postscript; the whole is then bound to match the early editions of the Origin of Species, so giving 'the whole book a much better appearance' (Freeman). In this copy the ads at the rear are dated January 1863 - in the earliest copies they were December 1861 and Freeman notes they can be as late as September 1868. (The next printing was 1870.)
