Charles Darwin first edition fetches $172K

LONDON, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- A first edition of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" has fetched $172,630 at a British auction, Christie's auction house said.

Auctioneers at Christie's in London had expected the 1859 work, sold on the 150th anniversary of its publication, to pull in only $100,300, the BBC reported Wednesday.

Christie's officials said the copy was one of only 1,250 in the revolutionary scientific work's original run and sported the publisher's green cloth cover and gilt-decorated spine.

The auctioneers told the BBC the copy was kept for years on a bookcase in a guest bathroom at the owner's family home in Oxfordshire, England.