Newton book set for £20k auction price
A RARE copy of a 291-yearold book, regarded as the most important work in science, could fetch over £20,000 at auction today.
The first edition of Sir Isaac Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy in English was sent to an auctioneer to be valued during lockdown.
Just a few hundred copies were published in 1729 and the two-volume edition was given an estimate of £8,000 to £10,000 by Hansons Auctioneers.
However, it is expected to pull in much more after a copy found in Wales recently fetched £22,000.
Hansons book expert Jim Spencer said: “It deserves to smash the estimate.”
The anonymous seller, from the Channel Islands, said the book was passed on by their grandfather.