This instrument was designed by Charles Gould for the Cary Company around 1825. Its date of manufacture coincides with the period when Charles Darwin was studying zoophytes and organisms such as coral and sea anemones.

According to Christie’s, it is one of six microscopes associated with the British naturalist that are still known to exist.

One of them is kept at Down House, Darwin’s former family home where he worked on his famous theory of natural selection.

This one is, however, the only microscope that belonged to the English naturalist and palaeontologist that has ever come to auction.

The auction house estimates that it will fetch between £250,000 and £350,000 (around $354,000 to $483,000).

It’s a valuation that attests to the instrument’s prestigious provenance, as underlined by James Hyslop, Head of Scientific Instruments, Globes and Natural History at Christie’s: “I find it incredibly exciting to look through this microscope and see what Charles would have seen when he pressed his eye to the lens,” he said.

“An instrument of such great scientific importance is incredibly rare.”

The microscope will go under the hammer Dec 15 during the next “Valuable Books & Manuscripts” sale, held during Christie’s traditional “Classic Week” auction series.

In recent years, various manuscripts and objects that belonged to Charles Darwin have appeared on the market.

A presentation copy of the first edition of Charles Darwin’s “The Origin of Species” was sold for US$500,075 at Bonhams in 2019 – a record price for an original edition of this scientific work.

The previous year, a leaf from the working manuscript for “The Origin of Species” went under the hammer for £490,000 at Sotheby’s, more than four times its low estimate.