Charles Darwin
Naturforscher, 1809-1882
Darwin gilt wegen seiner wesentlichen Beiträge zur Evolutionstheorie als einer der bedeutendsten Naturwissenschaftler überhaupt. Heute stellt die von ihm begründete und seitdem ständig weiterentwickelte Evolutionstheorie für die Biologie das grundlegende Paradigma dar: Durch sie werden alle biologischen Teildisziplinen, wie Zoologie, Botanik, Verhaltensforschung, Embryologie und Genetik, „unter einem einheitlichen Dach“ versammelt. Kein anderer Wissenschaftler des 19. Jahrhunderts hat unser modernes Weltbild stärker beeinflußt als er.
Quelle: Wikipedia
English naturalist (1809-1882). Autograph Letter Signed ("Ch. Darwin"). Down, Beckenham, Kent, Railway Station Orpington S.E.R. 8vo. 1 page. On personal stationery watermarked Joynson Superfine, some stains to blank, two small spots to upper section, light thumb-soiling to fore-edge, some small adhesive stains to lower edge.
".
25.000 €
(60682)
To J.F. Galbraith: „I thank you for your kindness in having written me so long a letter, but I can assure you that there is not a naturalist in the world who would credit that germinating seeds could be developed into animals of any kind. There was plenty of time and means for the indefinite multiplication of innumerable kinds of animals in the cask.“ - The recipient, J.F. Galbraith of Nelsonville, Manitoba, wrote Darwin a 3-page letter on October 20, 1881 in which he recounts an incident of development of worms in a barrel of wheat, noting that he had pondered Darwin's view that plants and animals may have had a common ancestor.
Darwin tactfully sets him straight. See Darwin Correspondence Database, darwinproject /entry-13417; Burkhardt, Frederick, A Calendar of Correspondence of Charles Darwin, 1821-1882, Volume 1, p 562..
English naturalist (1809-1882). Autograph Letter Signed. Down, Beckenham, Kent. One page of a bifolium. 8vo. Printed address.
9.500 €
(81497)
A letter to William Bowman asking him to give his vote for Darwin's nephew, Henry Parker, at the next balloting at the Athenaeum. In part: "If you attend the Ballotting at the Athenaeum Club, will you give your vote & exert any influence which you properly can in favor of my nephew, Henry Parker. He will be balloted for at the first meeting on the 16 th of the current month." ("On the 16th of the" is added in an unknown hand.), Signed, " Ch. Darwin". Sir William Bowman (1816-1892) was a physiologist and ophthalmic surgeon. Slightly uneven toning with stray foxing and two spots of dampstaining at top.
Ink remains bold and legible. Soiling on verso of blank integral page, especially at mail folds. Small folds at top and bottom left corners..
English naturalist (1809-1882). Autograph Letter Signed. Down, Beckenham, Kent. 8vo. 1 p.
22.000 €
(83823)
Darwin wrote to Fritz Muller German biologist referring Trichoptera published in Nature ALS signed “Ch. Darwin,” one page, 5 x 7.25, personal letterhead, March 12, 1866. Letter to an editor. In full: “I hope that you will verily oblige me by looking at all the proper names in the enclosed proof of a letter from Fritz Muller to be published in ‘Nature.’ I have no book to look to see whether the name of the Trichoptera arecorrectly spelt.—I hope that you will agree with me that the case is an interesting one.—Please return the proofs to me, and forgive me for troubling you.” In fine condition, with intersecting folds, light edge toning, and a trivial chip to the upper left corner. Fritz Muller was a German biologist and naturalist who had emigrated to Brazil in 1852, and proved to be one of Darwin’s most helpful correspondents.
He was an early advocate of Darwinism and published Für Darwin in 1864, which argued that the theory of evolution by natural selection was correct based on his observation that Brazilian crustaceans and their larvae could be affected by adaptations at any growth stage. Impressed with this work, Darwin sponsored the translation and publication of English editions. Darwin released his fourth edition of On the Origin of Species in 1866, and in it incorporated the work of his closest scientific friends, including Muller’s research on crustacean embryology. Muller also had access to a diverse array of flora and fauna given his location in Brazil, and was able to provide Darwin with trusted information on subjects he otherwise had no access to, including detailed diagrams, drawings, specimens, and seeds. Studies of these made their way into several of Darwin’s future works. A remarkable letter associating Darwin with one of his most trusted colleagues..
English naturalist (1809-1882). Autograph Letter Signed. Down, Bromley, Kent. 8vo. 1 p.
18.000 €
(83824)
To an unidentified recipient, 'I have real pleasure in signing Mr. Bonney's certificate, which I herewith return. I am delighted to hear that you are interested in my Book [the 'k' seemingly overwritten to obscure the 's' from the original plural of 'Books']', watermark 'Joynson / 1859', one page with integral blank, 8vo The watermark in the paper tantalisingly hints that the unnamed book referred to may have been Darwin's On the Origin of Species, which was published by John Murray on 24 November 1859.
Bonney may be the geologist Thomas George Bonney (1833-1923), who contributed the Appendix to the third edition of Darwin's The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, (Smith Elder & Co., 1889). Thomas George Bonney was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1860, and his nomination form was signed by Charles Darwin ‘from personal knowledge’. From the nomination form and a letter at the Geological Society dated February 1860 it appears that the person organising Bonney’s nomination was the civil engineer Sir John Hawkshaw (1811-1891); in 1865 his son John Clarke Hawkshaw, (a contemporary of Charles and Emma's son George at Trinity College, Cambridge), married Cecily Mary Wedgwood, a niece of Charles and Emma Darwin. In conclusion, there is therefore a strong possibility that the letter here is to Sir John Hawkshaw and was written on 1 January [1860]..
English naturalist (1809-1882). Cabinet photograph, unsigned. No place. No date. 108 : 167 mm.
1.800 €
(83825)
Head and shoulders photograph of the scientist. Copyright: Barraud, 263 Oxford St. London. A few doors West of ,The Circus’. With his name written in a third person’s hand written on the photographer’s mount. Slightly spotted and a minor bend.
Naturforscher (1809–1882). Eigenh. Brief mit Unterschrift. Down, Bromley. 8vo. 1 p.
9.500 €
(94473)
Unveröffentlichter Brief an den namentlich nicht genannten Mediziner Robert Hall Bakewell (1831–1908) mit Dank „for your kindness in taking the trouble to send me the particulars of the very curious case of inherited malconformation, which has interested me very much“. – R. H. Blakewell, „formerly Vaccinator-General and Medical Officer of Health for the Colony of Trinidad“, war „author of the ‚Pathology and treatment of Smallpox’ [and] Fellow of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London“ (Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 1868–1961).
– Die Identifikation des Adressaten gemäß einer kleinen zeitgenössischen Notiz in Bleistift am unteren Rand der Recto-Seite. – Alt auf Trägerpapier montiert; etwas unfrisch, angestaubt und stelenweise leicht fleckig..
English naturalist (1809-1882). Autograph letter signed. Down, Beckenham, Kent. 13.01.1881. 8vo. 2 pp. - (Bound before): Krause, Ernst. Erasmus Darwin. Translated from the German by W. S. Dallas. With a preliminary notice by Charles Darwin. London, John Murray, 1879. 8vo. IV, 216 pp. With a portrait frontispiece and a fullpage illustration. Full.
45.000 €
(62281/BN45464)
To the writer and critic Sir Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), whose copy this book is, responding to Sir Leslie's reassurances after having been attacked by the novelist Samuel Butler (1835-1902): "My dear Leslie Stephen. Your note is one of the kindest which I have ever received, & your advice shall be strictly followed. It was very good of you, busy as you are, to take so much trouble for me; but your trouble will not be thrown away, in so far as when in the dead of the night the thought comes across me how I have been treated, I will resolutely try to banish the thoughts, & say to myself that so good a judge as Leslie Stephen thinks nothing of the false accusation.
The Litchfields & some of my other children are intensely curious to read your judgment. Believe me / yours ever gratefully / Charles Darwin. / I have written on opposite page my name if you think fit to paste it into the Life of E.D.; but I much wish that you would name one or more of the books, written wholly by myself, which I could treat in the same manner for you." Indeed, the dedication "From Charles Darwin / with kindest regards / Jan. 13th 1881" has been cut out and mounted on the flyleaf, and underneath Sir Leslie has added by way of explanation: "The letter upon the next page refers to a silly attack made upon Darwin by Butler of 'Erewhon' etc. I had given Darwin the obvious advice to take no more notice of the creature, D. having already made a sufficient acknowledgement of a trifling error. For details see 'Academy' of the period. LS. - Darwin afterwards sent me the 'Origin of the Species' & the Voyage of the Beagle." - The physician Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), Charles's grandfather, espoused an early theory of evolution all his own, which he sketched, obliquely, in a question at the end of a long footnote to his popular poem "The Loves of the Plants" (1789). Samuel Butler rejected Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. In his 1879 book "Evolution, Old and New" he accused Darwin of having borrowed heavily from and distorted Buffon, Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck, trying to reinstate these earlier thinkers and with them, the design argument. - Provenance: by descent to Leslie Stephen's daughter, the writer Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), who left it to her husband, the writer Leonard Woolf (1880-1969). Woolf had the book auctioned at Sotheby's a year before his death (sale of Feb. 29/20, 1968, lot 279); acquired by a northern Swedish collector, whose descendants returned it to the trade..
English naturalist (1809-1882). Autograph letter signed ("Ch. Darwin"). Down, Beckenham, Kent. 8vo. 2 pp. on bifolium.
35.000 €
(62283/BN45467)
To the British architect William Cecil Marshall (1849-1921), whom Darwin engaged to build an extension to Down House on the north side (a billiard room with dressing room and bedroom above) in 1876, thanking him for some Pinguicula leaves, from which he has picked off sixteen seeds: "My dear Mr Marshall, I am very grateful to you. Your observations are excellent, & are put most clearly & will be very useful to me. I have picked off 16 seeds from this lot! The plant is certainly to a certain extent graninivorous also somewhat graminivorous, though mainly insectivorous.
The rain, I know washes off the secretion & with it captured insects (& as you say seeds), which are retained by the incurved edges, which then become more incurved. It is a pretty experiment to put a row of flies or cabbage seeds on one margin of a flat leaf & see how the edge of the side curls over in from 12 to 24 hours. With cordial thanks, Yours very sincerely [...]". - Traces of folds; professionally repaired. On stationery with printed address..
English naturalist (1809-1882). Autograph letter signed. Down Farnborough Kent. 8vo. 4 pp. on bifolium.
25.000 €
(72885/BN46976)
An important letter to Nathaniel Thomas Wetherell which underscores Darwin's belief in the scientific significance of the study of Cirripedia (barnacles): "I fear that you will think me a sad trespasser on your kindness & forbearance, when I tell you that I have not actually completed my description of Loricula; but I shall do it directly & write now to obtain your permission to take (myself) your specimen to Mr. James De C. Sowerby to [be] drawn for publication by the Palæontographical Society.
I have received Mr [John Wickham] Flower's specimens, & some from Denmark but none are related to the Loricula, which is as perplexing as ever to me. Immediately that Mr Sowerby has with your permission figured the Loricula (& I shall take it up in a fortnight) it shall be returned to you. Is there any safe place where I could leave it in London for you, or shall I return it by a messenger? I believe I did once before ask you, whether you have any other fossil Cirripedia. To save you the trouble of answering, I will assume, without I hear to the contrary that Mr Sowerby may figure it. With my best thanks I remain / dear Sir / Yours faithfully / C. Darwin / I assure you that it has not been idleness which has delayed me, but numbers of specimens of other fossil Cirri[pe]des". - We are able to date this letter precisely because August 1850 was the only month with a 'Thursday 8th' in the period between the Palaeontographical Society's decision to publish Fossil Cirripedia and the publication of the first volume of this work in 1851, in which Loricula pulchella is described (Fossil Cirripedia [1851]:81-86). - James de Carle Sowerby drew all the figures of the specimens in the first volume of Fossil Cirripedia. At the time of writing, Darwin does not seem to have known that George Brettingham Sowerby Jr had described and figured this particular specimen in 1843. However, since that time Wetherell had cleared away more material from the specimen, revealing features not seen by G. B. Sowerby Jr, and a new drawing was made for Darwin's description (Fossil Cirripedia [1851]:81). - Slight damage to paper (no loss to text) and in some parts professionally restored..
English naturalist (1809-1882). Autograph letter signed ("Ch. Darwin"). Down, Beckenham, Kent. 8vo. 1 page on bifolium.
22.500 €
(85987/BN56687)
To a "dear Sir", politely rejecting a proposed translation: "I am much obliged for your offer, but I have already agreed with Herr Koch & Prof. Victor Carus for a Translation [...]. - On headed stationery of Down House. Small traces of former mounting on reverse.
verkauft
Brief m. e. U.
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Charles Darwin (1809–1882), Naturforscher. Brief mit e. U. Beckenham, 11. Februar 1873. 1 S. auf Doppelblatt. 8°. Mit e. adr. Kuvert. – An den Schweizer Zoologen und Paläontologen Charles Forsyth Major (1843–1923): „I am very much obliged for your note, & am very sorry that you have had so much trouble & have given up the intention of bringing out a translation. I will write by this post to the jewish gentleman & enquire whether he still wish to translate my book [...]“. – Der Brief steht wohl im Zusammenhang mit den Bemühungen verschiedener Übersetzer und Verlage, aus Darwins zunehmender Berühmtheit Kapital zu schlagen. „So zeigten sich für ‚The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals’ zwei Schriftsteller und Übersetzer interessiert, u. a. Forsyth Major“ (Junker, Darwins deutsche Verleger und Übersetzer, S. 270). Darwin hatte sich jedoch bereits für Julius Viktor Carus als Übersetzer und Wilhelm Emanuel Schweizerbart als Verleger entschieden, benutzte die Anfragen jedoch, um beim Verlag höhere Tantiemen durchzusetzen. – Auf Briefpapier mit gepr. Adresse; das Kuvert mit Ausschnitt der Briefmarke.
Brief mit e. U.
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Charles Darwin (1809–1882), Naturforscher. Brief mit e. U. Down, Beckenham, Kent, 30. April 1877. 4 SS. auf Doppelblatt. Gr.-8°. – An einen Kollegen in Deutschland, der ihn gebeten hatte, ihm seine Forschungen zur Anatomie bestimmter Würmer widmen zu dürfen: „[...] I shall consider your dedication as a high & most gratifying honour. Your observation on the dorsal eyes of Onchidium are interesting and surprising in the highest degree. That the same animal should be provided with eyes of two widely different types is remarkable enough; but that you should have discovered gradations in the scale of their development on the same individual is most wonderful & shows us probably by what steps they were developed. On two occasions I have found gradations on the same individual but in structures of comparatively small importance, namely in the tendrils of the vine & and in the ocelli on the feathers of the argus pleasant. Even theses cases interested me much though they are quite trifling compared with your case. There is much truth in what you say about photographs in comparison with published memoirs or books; but the generous sympathy which I have received from so many men in Germany & Holland, some of them distinguished workers in science, has naturally given me much pleasure [...]“. – Die „tendrils of the vine“ hatte Darwin 1875 in „Climbing Plants“ behandelt. – Auf Briefpapier mit gepr. Adresse.
Brief mit eigenh. U. („Ch. Darwin“).
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An Rudolf Suchsland, den Sohn des Verlegers Friedrich Emil Suchsland, über eine Neuübersetzung von „The Origin of Species“: „[...] I feel that I am bound not in any way to support another edition. For this reason alone I am sorry to say that I cannot offer to send clean sheets of the new English edition of the Origin as they are printed off; and the corrections & additions are so numerous that they c[oul]d be sent in no other way. With respect to your enquiry about my other works in your list you give the same book twice over with different titles [...]“. – Weiters über sein „Journal of researches“, „The Zoology of the Voyage of [H.M.S.] Beagle“, die „Geological observations on the volcanic islands“, die „Geological observations on South America“ und andere seiner Werke. – Auf Briefpapier mit gepr. Adresse; etwas knittrig und fleckig; Bl. 3 mit kleinen Randschäden und stärker knittrig und fleckig.
E. Brief mit U.
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Charles Darwin (1809–1882), Naturforscher. E. Brief mit U. („Ch. Darwin“). Down House (Kent), 21. April [1866]. 3 SS. auf Doppelblatt. Gr.-8°. – An Rudolf Suchsland, den Sohn des Verlegers Friedrich Emil Suchsland, über eine Ausgabe von Terenzio Graf Mamiani della Roveres „Confessioni di un Metafisico“, die er lesen könne, „if it were in French [...] but German is too hard work for me without confusion“. – Auf Briefpapier mit gepr. Adresse; etwas knittrig und fleckig.
Autograph letter signed ("Ch. Darwin").
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To the German comparative anatomist Julius Victor Carus (1823-1903), enclosing a correction for the second edition of "Climbing plants": "My dear Sir, Be so kind as to make the enclosed correction [...]". - The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from J. V. Carus, 21 Dec. 1875. Two brownstains near top and left edges. Traces of folds. Without the enclosure mentioned (which rests in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Slg. Darmstaedter Lc 1859).
Eigenh. Briefumschlag.
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An Rudolf Suchsland, den Sohn des Verlegers Friedrich Emil Suchsland. „ R. Suchsland | 25 Belle Vue St. | Swansea | S. Wales“.
Eigenh. Briefumschlag.
Autograph ist nicht mehr verfügbar
An Rudolf Suchsland, den Sohn des Verlegers Friedrich Emil Suchsland. „ R. Suchsland | 25 Belle Vue St. | Swansea | S. Wales“.
Autograph letter signed.
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To Philip Lutley Sclater, who has been reading the proofs of Darwin's "Descent of Man", describing the ornithologist William Henry Hudson (1841-1922) as "a hater of evolution": "I will most gladly accept your kindness. I look at the delay caused as nothing comparatively to the great benefit. I never expected or hoped for many criticisms, but I still hope you will point out any serious error, whatever trouble this may cause to my Printers. I suppose I shall soon receive Revises, but Messrs Clowes [the printers of The Descent of Man] sometimes delay the 2d proofs till 23 of a whole vol. is corrected in first proof. - Mr Hudson's paper is very interesting & it pleases me to see so staunch a hater of evolution a little staggered at the end of his paper [...] I will not now waste quite so much time in trying to find every name quoted in some book; so you will doubly help me". - One of the earliest known examples of the use of the term "evolution" in the Darwinian sense, pre-dating its first appearance in print in "The Descent of Man". Although the term had long been in use in embryology, having been introduced with a specific meaning in 1762 by Charles Bonnet in his "Considerations sur les corps organisées", its use had been avoided by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in his 1809 work, "Philosophie Zoologique"; likewise, Darwin long resisted its use in the field of ontogenesis (biological development), preferring instead the phrase "descent with modification". In the last sentence of the first edition of "Origin" (1859), Darwin did use the verb "evolved" ("From so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved"), but he had still not yet settled on the term "evolution" to articulate his most important theory. In 1862, three years after the publication of "Origin", Herbert Spencer provided his own ontogenetic definition of the term in "First Principles": "Evolution is a change from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity, to a definite, coherent heterogeneity; through continuous differentiations and integrations." This definition failed to grasp a principle that Darwin had already recognised - that of adaptive complexity, or the idea that natural selection will tend to favour the evolution of new, specialised varieties. It was this feature that distinguished Darwin's theory from that of Lamarck, as well as from those of Spencer and other contemporaries, and which would become the central organizing principle that biologists use to understand the world. - The word "evolution" occurs for the first time in any of Darwin's printed works in "The Descent of Man" (vol. 1, p. 2), first published on 24 February 1871; Darwin then uses it - as a noun - in the revised 6th edition of "Origin" (published on 19 February 1872). - Original folds, a few toning spots, otherwise fine. Provenance: collection of Sir Edward Ford (1902-86), distinguished physician and philanthropist, Sydney; believed to have been acquired by Ford in London in the 1960s, from either Maggs Bros. or Winifred Myers. Accompanying this Darwin letter is a photocopy of a handwritten letter addressed to Sir Edward Ford from Dr. David Kohn, associate editor of The Collected Letters of Charles Darwin (later the Darwin Correspondence Project), dated 30 January 1978 and asking for copies of the Darwin letters in his collection and his permission for them to be published.
Kabinettphotographie.
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Sehr sauberer, tadelloser Abzug des ikonischen Altersporträts aus dem Atelier Elliott & Fry, London.
Cheque signed ("Ch. Darwin"), made out to "Mr Nicholls".
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Part-printed document completed by Darwin, a cheque for thirty-four pounds and ten shillings to be drawn on the Union Bank of London, stamped "Paid" on 31 December at the London & County Bank, Bromley (inscribed on verso "A Nichols" in another hand, small tears at each corner). - Such items of personal Darwin memorabilia are rare on the market: according to our research, this is only the second Darwin cheque to have appeared in the trade, and the first for over thirty-five years.
Cheque signed ("Ch. Darwin") and filled out by Darwin, made out to "Mr Payne".
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Part-printed document completed by Darwin, a cheque for Twenty-five pounds and four shillings to be drawn on the Union Bank of London, stamped "Paid" on 20 May. Signed on the back side by the recipient of the check. - Such items of personal Darwin memorabilia are rare on the market: according to our research, this is only the second Darwin cheque to have appeared in the trade, and the first for over thirty-five years.
Autograph letter signed.
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Darwin gives the definition of ‘distal’ and explains what ‘thrips’ are. He further suggests that Rérolle uses his descretion in his translation of Orchids about certain descriptive phrases such as ‘saddle-formed’, but suggests he use them each at least once. „I am glad to hear that you are making such rapid progress in your translation. ,Distal’ is a term used by English anatomists to express the part at greater distance from the body. […] It means the extreme or most remote half of the labellum from the center of flower. […] ,Thips’ is name of genre or group and is used by Latreille who places is under his ,aphidiens’;but it is very different from an aphis or puceron. I believe the entomologists do not now place thrips and aphis close together […]“ - He declines offer to look over his translation as „I am much obliged for your offer to look at your m.s. but as I am […] to much engaged, I will not acept“. Louis Rérolle (1848-1928) was curator at the Museum of Natural History in Grenoble. He had undertaken to translate Darwin's work, De la Fécondation des orchidees par les insects and the good results of crossing, which was to be published in Paris by the publisher Reinwald in 1870.
Eigenh. Brief mit Unterschrift.
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An einen Bibliothekar mit Bücherwünschen. „[…] I want to consult soon two books of which I give titles below. Will you tell me […], whether these are in Library, & how soon you could send them. I fear, however, you have them not […]“ Unter der Unterschrift gibt er die Titel an: „‘Lafitau’s Moeurs des [Sauvages] Amériquains. – ‘James narrative of Tanner’s 30 years, captivity among the n. american Indians […]“
Postkarte mit eigenh. Unterschrift.
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An „The Librarian / Royal Soc / Burlington House“: „Please be so good as to send me Dr Beales works – ‘Bioplasm’, & ‘Protoplasma’ […]“ (gedruckte Absenderangabe: „From Mrs. C. Darwin […]“, das „s“ durchstrichen). - Die Postkarte von fremder Hand, die Signatur stammt von Charles Darwin.