When you first hear about something like this, you treat it with a healthy amount of scepticism.
When James told me about it, I was very excited.
I can't remember exactly what he said, but he definitely used the word Darwin and the word microscope.
When I got it out of the box for the first time,
I can't quite remember if my hand was trembling or not.
This object is by far one of the most exciting items I've handled in my time at Christie's.
My mother phoned me to say that she had found this brown box full of brass bits and pieces, she said,
and she didn't know what it was. And I had a good idea what it was
because I remembered a conversation that I had had with my father in 1992
where he had showed me a brown box
and he had said that this was a travelling microscope from the time of Charles Darwin.
And so, I took it up to London with me that day and I took it to Christie's the following Friday.
So, this is Dr Robert Waring Darwin, he was a doctor in Shrewsbury
and he was the father of Charles Robert Darwin, who was the naturalist.
Charles Robert Darwin had a number of children.
There is Sir George Howard Darwin who is my great-grandfather
and Charles Robert Darwin's youngest son was Major Leonard Darwin.
Leonard was born in 1850 and my father was born in 1934.
Leonard was my father's godfather and, at some point, before Leonard died in 1943,
he gave the microscope to my father.
C. Gould's new improved pocket compound microscope, price 11 pounds 16 shillings.
Shuts up in a case three inches square.
Is complete in all its parts for the naturalist, botanist, and mineralogist.
And has been found, on comparison by several scientific gentlemen, superior in power and more distinct
than many of the largest and more expensive instruments of the kind.
When James told me about it, I was very excited,
because this kind of thing just doesn't happen.
I was going to say very often, but it just doesn't happen.
We know the story really well, from 1831.
But if we look at his biography, we know that he was using a microscope before that.
So there's one missing, there always has been.
Everything after 1831 is really well documented, but this fits into that gap.
So Darwin goes to Edinburgh when he's young, when he's a teenager, and younger than we go to university now.
And he goes there in order to study medicine.
But for a variety of reasons, he doesn't want to continue with his studies in medicine.
A lot of the lectures that he goes to are quite kind of high level and he's very disdainful of some of them.
But he picks up on this guy, Robert Grant, who's got an idea about what were then considered to be the lowest creatures,
so the most simple, the most basic creatures.
And Darwin becomes interested in this, joins a thing called the Plinian Society which is a natural history society there
and ... when he is still a teenager, so I think he is 18 when he presents his first paper which is microscopical research
into this marine creature.
You know, one thing we know for certain is that he definitely had a microscope at university.
That's guaranteed because he did the work that was then presented to the Plinian Society.
The lovely thing about the microscope at Christie's is that it coincides exactly with the dates of him going to Edinburgh.
So he goes in, I think, 1825, he starts his researches on the side,
his scientific experiments and so on in 1826,
his paper is published in 1827.
The microscope is first described in print in around 1826.
And it's supposed to be this all-purpose device, it does lots of different things.
You can observe live creatures in it, which is crucial for doing the kind of work that he's doing down on the sea shore,
or on the banks of the river.
And it just fits in terms of the timing, in terms of what kind of instrument he would have wanted to have,
cause it's the cutting-edge device of the time.
The extreme portability of Mr. Gould's microscope, which is enclosed in a case measuring only four inches by three,
and its great magnifying power,
recommended strongly to the attention of the naturalist, mineralogist and botanist,
as it has sufficient powers to discover the most minute, animalcular, and seed vessels.
Its construction obviates the want of light when a high magnifying power is used with the compound body,
and it may be carried in the pocket without the slightest inconvenience.
When Darwin went on the Beagle, he was a very well-prepared naturalist.
He'd attended Henslow's Botany, it seems, three different times in Cambridge.
I think that what he gets is a lot of techniques and insights that he then transfers to his study of invertebrates
on the Beagle itself.
So if he got very adept at using this instrument, it's not impossible he would have taken this along with him.
One of the important things that he develops on the Beagle was the relationship with plants and animals
at a very elementary level.
The microscopic work he has done in relating these two branches of life together
certainly could have been one of the important things that would have been part of the theory
that he's developing, sketching out, when he comes back.
In 40 years' time, I will definitely remember this over, I think, every other microscope that I'll have handled
over my time at Christie's.
It's thrilling to look through a lens that Charles Darwin looked through.
When you have something as tangible as this and connected to a scientist like Darwin,
collectors and museums get really excited.
I mean, everyone who's come to see it in person has been captivated by it.
Darwin was obviously one who wanted to encourage his children in many ways to study scientific things.
So the fact that he gave it to one of his sons and even gave it to him at a very early age is very typical, I think, of Darwin.
My dear William, I'm very glad to hear that you have begun botany, you will always be glad that you began this.
By the way, one evening, I said to Franky, who is getting on very well in French,
that he would be very glad of it all his future life.
And a few days after, Lenny was dissecting under my microscope,
and he turned round very gravely and said:
"Don't you think, Papa, that I shall be very glad of this all my future life?"
Obviously that's the auctioneer's rostrum.
That's where I'll be. On here, on these two banks, will be Christie's staff with the phone bids.
Here in the middle, we'll have rows of seats,
and online bids flash up on those screens right in front of me when I'm taking the bids.
It is a thrill. It is a thrill when you're selling such an important iconic lot like this as an auctioneer.
My experience with objects like this is if it sells to a private collector, they want to share it with the world.
It may well end up being loaned to a museum here in the UK or abroad somewhere,
but I'd be very certain that this will be seen again in public, in a museum display case next.
Welcome to this afternoon's session of the valuable books and manuscripts sell here at Christie's,
as we start with lot 103.
Now, this is of course the Charles Darwin family microscope.
And without further ado, we have interest here of course that we can start this already at £190,000, £200,000, £220,000.
Add to £220,000, £240,000, £280,000.
I have £300,000, £300,000 here with my absentee bidder. £320,000. £350,000.
£380,000, thank you very much, James.
But I have £400,000.
£400,000.
With my absentee bidder, £420,000.
£450,000 here with me.
At £480,000, congratulations, you've cleared the book. It's with you, James, at £480,000.
At £480,000, now I'm looking to you online.
£480,000, it is with James.
£480,000 then, it's a fair warning. And selling the Charles Darwin family microscope, for £480,000.
The hammer's coming down.
Sold for £480,000, paddle 813.