JOHNSON’S DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, IN MINIATURE

Samuel JOHNSON (1709-1784). Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, in miniature. To which are added, an alphabetical account of the Heathen Deities, and a copious chronological table of remarkable events, discoveries, and inventions by the Rev. Joseph Hamilton. The First American, from the Fourteenth English Edition. Boston: published by W.P and L. Blake… E. Lincoln, printer, 1804. 12mo signed in sixes (5 ¾ x 3 5/8 inches). Pp. [3-6; 7]-8-274; [i-ii publisher’s adverts]. Oval wood-engraved portrait frontispiece of Johnson by Alexander Anderson (after Joshua Reynolds) cut down and mounted. Text in two columns. (The portrait supplied, toned throughout, occasional additional spotting, two small wormholes to title, lower outer margin of title strengthened using archival paper repair tape, three or four leaves with small marginal tears not affecting the text). Rebound using mostly old materials: contemporary marbled paper covered-boards with leather outer corners and a recent shed-snakeskin spine (rubbed). Provenance: Susan Osborne (early signature to title).

First American Edition. Very rare on the market: none for sale and the last listing on Rare Book Hub was for a copy offered by Goodspeed in 1939 when it was described as “Very scarce”. NB the shed skin comes from a Northern Water Snake - no snakes were hurt or even mildly alarmed before or during the rebinding of this book. OCLC 7780148; AAS #279998; Shaw-Shoemaker 6563; J.R. Pomeroy.  Alexander Anderson, 1775-1870, 151