A 200-YEAR-OLD DARWIN FAMILY MICROSCOPE TO BE SOLD AT AUCTION

Sat 16 October 2021:

Charles Darwin gifted his son Leonard a microscope, which has stayed in the family for nearly 200 years and is likely to bring up to $480,000 at auction in December.

According to Christie’s, the microscope was designed by Charles Gould for the firm Cary circa 1825 and is one of six surviving microscopes associated with the British naturalist.

It was made about the same time when Darwin was studying zoophytes, or organisms like coral and sea anemone.

“It is just incredibly spine tingling to look through this and see the microscopic world that Darwin would have seen in the 1820s and 30s,” James Hyslop, Head of Department, Scientific Instruments, Globes & Natural History, at Christie’s, told Reuters.

“Later in his life in 1858, there’s a wonderful letter that he writes to his eldest son saying young Lenny was dissecting at his microscope and he said ‘Oh Papa, I should be so glad of this for my whole life’. It’s wonderful to have that family connexion of Charles Darwin just before he becomes internationally famous.”

The auction house Christie’s estimates that the microscope will go on sale for around £ 250,000 to £ 350,000, or around € 300,000 to € 415,000.

The microscope is one of the six remaining microscopes connected to Darwin (1809–1882), says the auction house. The device for sale is designed by Charles Gould around 1825.

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