Newton, Isaac, Sir | Opticks …, London, 1721, third edition, contemporary calf

Newton, Isaac, Sir

Opticks: Or a Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light. London: For William and John Innys, 1721

Third edition, and the last printed in Newton's lifetime.

This copy has the ownership inscription of John George Children (1777–1852), a chemist, mineralogist, and zoologist, whose experiments on galvanic cells won him the Royal Institution medal in 1828. Children served as secretary of the Royal Society in 1826 and between 1830 and 1837, and was a founding president of the organization which later became the Royal Entomological Society.

8vo (194 x 117mm). Woodcut headpieces, tailpieces, and initials, 2-page publisher's ads, 12 engraved folding plates, 16-page bookseller's catalogue bound at end; some folding plates a bit frayed at extremities. Contemporary panelled calf; sympathetically rebacked, joints reinforced.

REFERENCES

ESTC T131541

PROVENANCE

"?Rice Lewis — 1727" (faded ownership inscription to front pastedown) — John George Children F.R.S. (1777–1852; pencil ownership inscription to title-page) —Robert S. Dunham (acquired from Davis & Orioli; Sotheby's New York, 11 December 1993, lot 738 [part])