Fore-edge painting - A Dictionary of the English Language.

A Dictionary of the English Language. With an alphabetical account of the heathen deities; and a list of the Cities, Towns, Boroughs and remarkable Villages, in England and Wales. To which is prefixed a comprehensive view view of English Grammar. [Preface signed at end with initial J. in letterpress - ie. Samuel Johnson.] 4th edition, with additions and improvements, 12mo in 6s, xxx, [260] pages, 13cm, London: Printed for W. Peacock, Salisbury-Court, 1794.

Contemporary red crushed straight grain morocco with marbled endpapers, gilt decorated spine, board corners rubbed, all edges gilt and gilt extra. The fore-edge painting depicts sailing ships on the Thames and the Tower of London - a most attractive scene.

The book which was first published in 1785 and went into many editions is referenced by ESTC T147771. Although the technique goes back to the seventeenth-century, the great majority of fore-edge painting date to the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries (usually on early nineteenth-century books). However, I think this is earlier than that.