Posted on 11/22/2009 5:25:08 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
A first edition of Charles Darwin's seminal "On the Origin of Species" will be sold this week after it was found in a family's toilet in southern Britain, an auction house said Sunday.
The book, which was first printed in 1859, was bought by a family for just a few shillings in a shop about 40 years ago, Christie's auction house said.
The family has since kept the work on a bookcase in the guest lavatory at their home in the Oxford area, it said.
The book will go under the hammer in London on Tuesday, to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the publication of the father of the theory of evolution's famous work.
The book, about 1,250 copies of which were first printed, is expected to fetch 60,000 pounds (66,000 euros, 99,000 dollars).
Margaret Ford, head of books and manuscripts at Christie's, said the book would have been a bargain when it was bought by the present owner.
"It's incredibly important," Ford said, adding of the current owner: "He knew it (the book) was textually important.
"He maybe did not know how much of a bargain he was getting."
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Gotta start checking my toilet!
That’s not “in the toilet,” it’s “in the bathroom.” Don’t these Brits speak English, already?
Few people provide a bookcase full of reading material for their guests in the loo, I would imagine.
I usually grab my first edition of Caesar’s Gallic Wars.
Put it back in the toilet where it belongs.
It’s nothing but **it anyway.
Last I was over there, they still politely called it the “WC,” water closet, or less politely, the ‘loo. Quite the soaring contraptions for toilets, too, with the tank at the ceiling on occasion. Gravity fed? No idea. Not standardized at all, so you never knew with what you’d be confronted, when nature called.
That was twenty years ago, though, with walkup coldwater flats, and a coin-fed timer to keep the power on, lol. Their working class put up with way more deprivation than our poor ever did.
I was in England (and Northern Ireland, where my mom’s from) in 1983. The “facilities” were better than what we found in Holland in 2003, even at Mom’s cousins’ farm in Derry.
I never heard anyone say “toilet” in Europe at all. Even in Holland, the signs for the can said, “W.C,” and don’t even consider asking where’s the “Ladies’ “?
Running magazines.
I’ve found that scrolls are just too much trouble in the bathroom. And don’t even get me started on stone tablets.
I saw the initials “W.C.” everywhere in Germany in the 1980’s.
It was a holdover from the Nazis, when that was supposed to stand for Winston Churchill, their nemesis.
Swastikas kept turning up in the darndest places, too.
It was a bathroom reader? How about that.
Oh. I thought it was Origin of Feces...need new glasses...
Damn good thing the toilet paper never ran out.
From the headline, I assumed someone had mistaken it for a koran.
Didn’t make it to Northern Ireland. My exposure was London and environs, and the soutwest, Somerset and Devonshire. Been to the Republic Of Ireland on numerous occasions. Dublin, Dublin burbs, day trips to points of interest from there such as Howth Head, a few castle ruins, Bray, Waterford, etcetera, and once down to Cork. Interesting climate and flora down in Cork. There weren’t exactly palm trees, but certainly resembled them. Very surprising. Gulf Stream. Plants from all over washed up and took root there.
I always had a flashback of the movie “Brazil,” whenever I pulled that long chain to flush, though. I went to London young and not exactly flush with cash, and stayed with friends. Very basic flat, as you might imagine. “Brazil” again with the coin slot egg timer deal for the electric. Hot shower? Forget it. It was fun, though.
Obama has three full years left in office. He's only just begun to stuff us down the sewer pipe.
Or maybe a copy of Lydia's Garlic Wars ...
My visits to the bathroom usually result from my visits to Lydia’s, they are not concurrent. Her place puts out some pretty good grub.
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