Charles Darwin Clipped Signature.  4" x 2" (sight). Excised from a larger document, the famed naturalist has written "Charles Darwin / Down, Kent / November 3d 1881" just five months before his death. In the last two decades of his life, he had suffered persistent illness, exhibiting symptoms of a disease today known as cyclical vomiting syndrome. Shortly before his death, he was diagnosed with angina pectoris. Matted with a photograph of the heavily bearded Darwin taken circa 1878 and framed to an overall size of 9.75" x 13.75".