Knevett & Arliss’ Diamond Edition of Johnson’s Dictionary.

Bound in the publisher’s dark calf, in a simple wrap with a smooth spine, contemporary to the time of publication. Gilt decorations to the spine laying out five gilt ruled panels with a roundel decoration to the centre of each panel. Very delicately done and still in very good condition. A Black Moroccan lettering piece in the second panel.

Top front hinge cracked, but still firm. Some chipping to the top and bottom of the spine and the corners are bumped with one bad split.

Internally the engraved title pages with some stains and an ownership signature at the top dated 1862. Lacking the front flyleaf. The leaves without stains or water damage but a bit browned.

Please see the slideshow in order to gain a greater appreciation of the condition of this volume.

From the Editor’s Preface. January 1809

“The exquisite beauty and correctness of the Diamond Type, together with the care of the workmen in every department of this elegant production, will, I flatter myself, be too conspicuous to need comment  – they carry with them their own encomium.

Without disparagement to other books of the same description, it will be a pardonable vanity to say, that a work of a superior cast has been here completed; a task in which much labour and some judgement were necessary; and I trust, that it will meet from the public that patronage which, in Great Britain, seldom fails to reward industry and perseverance”.