[NEWTON, Isaac, Sir (1642-1727)] - photo 1
[NEWTON, Isaac, Sir (1642-1727)] - photo 2
[NEWTON, Isaac, Sir (1642-1727)] - photo 3

[NEWTON, Isaac, Sir (1642-1727)]

Lot 185
10.12.2025 12:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1514548
Lot 185 | [NEWTON, Isaac, Sir (1642-1727)]
Estimate value
£ 30 000 – 40 000
[NEWTON, Isaac, Sir (1642-1727)]
Opticks: or, a Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. Also Two Treatises of the Species and Magnitude of Curvilinear Figures. London: Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, 1704.
First edition, first issue, of Newton’s revolutionary work on light and colour, extra-illustrated with a fine mezzotint portrait of Newton: a crisp copy, with the title printed in red and black within a border, and the imprint without the author's name, the two treatises on calculus at end. Opticks contains Newton's account of his discoveries concerning light, from his first published paper in 1672 onward, including his work on the spectrum of sunlight, the degrees of refraction associated with different colours, the colour circle, the rainbow, ‘Newton's rings’, and his invention of the reflecting telescope. ‘Newton’s Opticks did for light what his Principia had done for gravitation, namely, placed it on a scientific basis’ (Babson, p.66). Babson 132; Dibner, Heralds of Science 148; Grolier/Horblit 79b; Norman 1588; PMM 172. Engraved portrait of Newton: Chaloner Smith 1883 (109); Keynes XLIII-7.

Quarto (245 x 190mm). Title printed in red and black, 19 folding engraved plates (puncture in blank margin of plate 3), extra-illustrated with a mezzotint portrait of Newton by John Simon after Godfrey Kneller published by Edward Cooper (c. 1700-25) bound-in facing the title. Contemporary English blind-tooled calf (neatly rebacked, corners and edges rubbed). Provenance: William Clubbe (c.1745-1814, Church of England clergyman and poet; by whom gifted in 1804 to:) – Samuel Reeve (c.1786-1830; armorial bookplate of Samuel Reeve and inscription by his father in Latin noting the gift of this book from his dear friend William Clubbe to his son Samuel Reeve in 1804) – Sir Archibald Garrod KCMG FRS (1856-1936, distinguished physician and biochemist, who pioneered the field of inborn errors of metabolism. He served as Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford from 1920 to 1927, having succeeded Sir William Osler; donated by Garrod to:) – Royal Society of Medicine (bookplate recording Garrod's gift to the library on 18th October 1919, library stamp of the Royal Society of Medicine on a blank preliminary leaf, title page, page 1 and verso of plates).
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
10.12.2025 – 10.12.2025
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
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