Sold by RR Auction (25/22.5% buyer’s premium) on June 14 was a financial document of November 1721 bearing the signature of Isaac Newton – an order to pay to a Dr Francis Fauquier the dividend due on his substantial investment in the South Sea Company.
Newton, having initially doubled his 1720 stake of £3500, had sold off his shares, but with prices still rising he re-entered the scheme on an even larger scale. When the ‘Bubble’ burst, this great scientist and Master of the Mint lost everything.
He later observed that he “could calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of the people”.