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

Birmingham: printed by John Baskerville, 1765. First and only edition, 18mo in sixes, 96 leaves, [†]2 a-c6 d2 B-N6 O2; later half brown morocco over marbled boards, bound by George A. Zabriskie with his armorial bookplate on upper pastedown, gilt decorated spine in five compartments, gilt-decorated dentelles, marbled endpapers; boards rubbed and bumped, title page chipped, losing the "V" in vocabulary, with contemporary inscription, moderate foxing, good and sound. 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 (truncated) 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. George A. Zabriskie was an antiquarian of many talents, and in addition to being a successful businessman, collector, Grolier Club member, was a prolific and capable amateur binder. Many of the books in his library were bound by his own hand. Gaskell 31; Vancil, p. 245; Kennedy 6264; Alston V, 237. (Inventory #: 58364)