Of course I could not resist the beautiful calligraphic loops just inside this speller just shy of 200 years old, and especially what I take for a sharp featured little head and shoulders made up of tiny dots at left, which I imagine was a tiny portrait of a stern instructor! With wooden cover boards papered in blue (Webster's speller was the most popular of the day, known familiarly as “the blue-back speller”) it is quite a lovely thing, with page after page of good word upon word, a series of small engravings depicting fables, some of them hand-colored in sepia, and all sorts of other interesting odds and ends, such as population counts in each of the states as per the 1800 and 1810 census. I was thinking these old spellers would make great inspiration for Wordle words, as well as for poetry and novel writing of course!
6 3/8" x 4", 165 pages. Overall good to very good condition, with various degrees of toning throughout and a tear to the last page. Wear to the cover is all to the good for character I think (loss to wood at lower right) and the leather spine and binding are in good shape.
