Pictures of Darwin’s evolution up for sale
RARE portraits charting Charles Darwin’s life are tipped to sell for £100,000 after being found in a house clearance.
The “historically important” album revealed 19 black and white photos of the legendary biologist, seven of which were signed by him, spanning almost 30 years.
They were collated by his eldest daughter, Henrietta Litchfield, and bound in a leather album, which she inscribed in memory of her father, who died in 1882 aged 73.
The album was kept within the family for 135 years until it was found in the home of his great-great grandson, George Erasmus Darwin, in 2017.
An auctioneer came across it in a Georgian writing bureau during a house clearance after his death.
The sale is likely to attract collectors from across the world when it comes to auction at Reeman Dansie of Colchester, Essex, on November 9.
The Victorian photos begin in 1855 when a 46-year-old Darwin, without his famous beard, was preparing to publish his revolutionary theory of evolution, On the Origin of Species. Arranged chronologically, they illustrate his own evolution as his facial hair becomes “wilder over the years”.
Valuer Daniel White said that the album, never before seen publicly, could be described as recording “the descent of man” and that the photos added “a new visual dimension to Darwin’s life”.
And another album found in the same bureau contains 81 photos of Darwin, his children, and his extended family, including his greatnephew, the famous composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.
It is thought to have belonged to the scientist’s wife, Emma, and is set to sell for £10,000. The album also contains pictures of notable figures Darwin associated with, including Queen Victoria.
The naturalist rocked the scientific and religious community when he proposed that man had descended from apes, shaped by a gradual process of natural selection, rather than being made in the image of God.