Rare Newton book sells at auction for £22,000

TENBY A RARE book by Sir Isaac Newton that was found on a bookshelf in Wales has sold at auction for £22,000.

The finder doesn’t want to be identified but it has been confirmed that the first edition copy of Sir Isaac Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy in English was found at a house in the Tenby area during lockdown.

The owner was having a clear out when the rare volumes were found.

And it was worth the tidy up because the book was sold to a buyer in New York and exceeded the £15,000 to £20,000 guide price.

Auctioneer, Chris Albury, of Dominic Winter Auctioneers in Cirencester, said: “The first contact about this was one of a short series of email valuations about several antiquarian books sent with images.

“All the books were of indifferent value but as soon as I saw the image of this one I almost fell off my chair.

“At first I thought they only had one of the two volumes until I saw the picture of both spines staring out at me at which point I became very excited.”

He said he rang the owners to give them the news after he saw the email.

“Having told them all their books bar one were not of great value I told them this one was an exception that might be worth a five-figure sum.”

The physicist’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy has been described as the greatest work in the history of science.

It is where Newton explains how objects move and lays the foundations of his theory of gravity.