EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955) - photo 1
EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955) - photo 2
EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955) - photo 3

EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955)

Lot 157
11.12.2024 14:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 6 930
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1349755
Lot 157 | EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955)
Estimate value
£ 5 000 – 7 000
EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955)
‘Über den Einfluß der Schwerkraft auf die Ausbreitung des Lichtes.’ Offprint from: Annalen der Physik, 4th series, vol. 35. Leipzig: Barth, 1911
Very rare first edition, author's offprint issue, of Einstein's great conceptual leap forward, predicting the effect of gravity on the behaviour of light, from the library of the pioneering theoretical physicist Arnold Sommerfeld (1868-1951). Before Einstein's thesis, gravity was seen as a force only acting between masses, without effect on light. However, with this 1911 work, Einstein postulated that light passing near a massive object, like a star, would experience gravitational bending — a revolutionary prediction challenging classical Newtonian mechanics. This paper laid the groundwork for Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, finalised in 1915, by suggesting that gravity was not simply a force but a curvature in space-time caused by mass. Einstein's prediction was famously confirmed during the 1919 solar eclipse when British astronomer Arthur Eddington observed the predicted light deflection around the Sun.

Arnold Sommerfeld was a German theoretical physicist who made significant contributions to atomic and quantum physics. He extended Niels Bohr's atomic model by introducing elliptical orbits for electrons and proposed additional quantum numbers, including the azimuthal and magnetic quantum numbers. Sommerfeld also introduced the fine-structure constant, contributed to X-ray wave theory, and co-discovered the Sommerfeld-Wilson quantization rules. His seminal work ‘Atombau und Spektrallinien’ became a foundational text for the new generation of physicists developing atomic and quantum physics. Sommerfeld was an exceptional educator, mentoring 7 Nobel Prize winners and numerous other prominent physicists. Despite being nominated for the Nobel Prize a record 84 times, he never received the award. Nevertheless, he was honoured with several prestigious accolades, including the Lorentz Medal, the Max-Planck Medal, and the Oersted Medal, and was elected to numerous scientific academies worldwide. In 1918, Sommerfeld succeeded Einstein as chair of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft, and in 1922 Einstein wrote to his successor: ‘What I especially admire about you is that you have, as it were, pounded out of the soil such a large number of young talents’ (A. Pais, ‘Subtle is the Lord...’: The Science and Life of Albert Einstein, 1982).

This author’s offprint can be distinguished from the normal ‘trade’ edition by the statement ‘Überreicht vom Verfasser’ on the wrapper. Very rare: we have only been able to trace one other author’s offprint of this paper at auction, i.e. the Plotnik copy, sold Christie's New York 4 October 2002, lot 80; resold PBA 11 June 2020, lot 379 (RBH/ABSA). BRL 39; Weil *43.

Octavo (223 x 144mm). Paginated pp.898-908. Original printed wrappers (faint vertical creasefold). Provenance: Arnold Sommerfeld (red chinagraph numbering and underlining in manuscript on upper wrapper, pencil marking on p.901).
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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11.12.2024 – 11.12.2024
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