Age of Wonder

Name: Age of Wonder | 2022 | Sotheby's
Start: 2022-11-25T16:00:00Z
End: 2022-12-09T20:00:00Z
Location: New York

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Age of Wonder

25 November - 9 December 2022 • New York

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Your local time • 20:00 PM GMT

Overview

Sotheby’s is proud to present Age of Wonder, an auction spanning categories to highlight the most significant figures of the modern age.

By the dawn of the 19^th century, new understandings of astronomy and geology were becoming a part of popular discourse. Despite this, science itself had yet to produce its own theory of creation. Through On the Origin of Species (1859), however, Charles Darwin had written what is now considered a new Book of Genesis. Liberated by science, man’s reach was suddenly boundless.

As the citizens of the 19th century came to accept the findings of their Romantic forebearers, culture soon caught up. With Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein animated by electricity, Dickens’ Little Dorrit offering an exploration of climate change within London, and photography able to capture with immediacy the essence of existence, society was obsessed with the possibility of science, as well as the wonder it inspired.

In this sale we are thrilled to offer the most significant autograph manuscript by Charles Darwin to appear on the market, which serves as his definitive statement on evolution, Newton, and religion. Other lots include a fine first edition of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species; the scarce and highly desirable Darwin and Wallace paper “On the tendency of species to form varieties, and on the perpetuation of varieties and species by natural means of selection” (issued by the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society in 1858), in which Darwin first published the outline of his theories of natural selection and evolution; a first American edition of Melville’s masterpiece, Moby-Dick, and numerous other lots sure to inspire wonder.

Online bidding will be open the 25^th of November through the 9^th of December. A pre-sale exhibition will be on view at Sotheby’s New York the 30^th of November through the 8^th of December.

For assistance with bidding and registration, please contact:

+1 212 606 7000

enquiries@sothebys.com

For all enquiries please contact:

Richard Austin

Senior Vice President

Global Head of Department, Books & Manuscripts

Books & Manuscripts

+1 212 606 7385

RICHARD.AUSTIN@SOTHEBYS.COM

Selby Kiffer

Senior Vice President