?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 6,000 - $ 9,000
JOHNSON, SAMUEL. A Dictionary of the English Language. 2 volumes. Folio, 407x252 mm, 19th-century red morocco with flat spines gilt, scuffed, spines faded with minor stains; occasional toning, intermittent light marginal dampstaining mainly in Volume 1 and toward end of Volume 2, repairs in blank margins of 3H², 9X1, 10M2, 10Q2, and 22F--22Z, small hole through 7A1 affecting a few words, still an attractive set overall. 19th-century armorial bookplates of Walter Balston. London: W. Strahan for J. and P. Knapton et al., 1755
first edition, limited to 2000 copies, of Johnson's magnum opus, "the first scholarly historical dictionary of the English language . . . at once recognized as England's greatest contribution to lexicography" (DLB). Courtney & Nichol Smith, page 54; Printing and the Mind of Man 201; Rothschild 1237.
