Rare in my experience to come across an alphabetically tabbed ledger like this, and such a beautiful one, filled with the names of old Portsmouth, NH families someone from these parts would surely recognize. The letters of the alphabetical index are printed--individually cut from somewhere and adhered one by one to the edges of the pages, with the pages to follow trimmed in order that each letter be visible from the front. To me all those letters lined up in a vertical row as about it as lovely as it gets, as is the hand marbled cover. I believe this was used as a reference for a much larger ledger in which the accounts of each of the individuals/families named here were kept, as each name here is followed by a note of one or more page numbers, and it looks as if added to over time.
11 3/4" t x 3 7/8" w and in veryvery good condition, especially for being nearly 200 years old!