?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
JOHNSON, SAMUEL. A Dictionary of the English Language. 2 volumes. Folio, 400x258 mm, modern calf with early diced russia covers laid down lower half of bottom spine compartments darkened; internally crisp and generally quite clean, with only infrequent light foxing and soiling, mainly in Volume 2, diagonal crease across a few leaves at end of Volume 1. Signature of Anthony Whyte dated 1762 on titles; bookplates of Francis Wilson. 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.
