LONDON – A first edition of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species," which had been kept in a bathroom bookcase in England for years, fetched 103,250 pounds ($171,000) at auction Tuesday, around twice its pre-sale estimate.

Christie's auctioneer offered the book at a sale held in London on the 150th anniversary of the evolutionary work's original publication.

The copy was bought by the family of the current owners for "a few shillings" (dollars) over 50 years ago, the auctioneer said.

The seller's son-in-law recently visited an exhibition on Darwin where he saw another first edition on display and realized it was the same work as that in his father-in-law's guest bathroom.