A vocabulary, or pocket dictionary. To which is prefixed, a compendious grammar of the English language

Birmingham: printed by John Baskerville, and sold by Messieurs Dodd, Rivington, Longman, Richardson, Hawes and Co. Crowder, Robson, and Stuart, London, 1765. First and only edition, 18mo in sixes, 96 leaves, [pi]2 a-c6 d2 B-N6 O2; contemporary full mottled calf, neatly rebacked, old gilt-decorated spine and label laid down; nice copy. A dictionary in the "hard words" tradition, omitting "the common words of the language," and designed for the use of "young ladies, and gentlemen, too, who have not had the advantage of a liberal or learned education" (Preface). Halkett & Laing, Kennedy, and Alston attribute the work to Baskerville himself - an attribution of which I've always been dubious. In the noted dictionary collector Tom Rodger’s copy of Alston, he attributes it to Joseph Priestley. Alston V, 237; Gaskell 31; Kennedy 6264; Vancil, p. 245. Item #64573

Price: $1,250.00