Desirable ink signature, "Dear Sir, yours faithfully, Charles Darwin,” on an off-white 3.5 x 1.5 slip, removably corner-mounted inside the front of the custom-made cloth clamshell case for the first edition, first issue of Darwin's landmark book, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, in Two Volumes. London: John Murray, 1871. Two volumes bound in three-quarter tan calf, gilt spine, marbled boards, red labels, raised bands, speckled edges, 5.25 x 7.25, totaling 898 pages. First edition points of issue include "transmitted" on line 1 of page 297, Vol. I; printer's note on verso of half-title of Vol. II; and author's postscript tipped in on page ix-x of Vol. II. Autographic condition: fine. Book condition: VG/None, with edgewear, some rubbing and scratching to leather, occasional mild foxing, and small ownership labels to front pastedowns. A handsomely bound first issue of an immensely important book—the first of Darwin's works to include the word "evolution," on the second page of the first volume.
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