John Kay’s Original Portraits

Birlinn’s Limited Editions imprint celebrates the extraordinary work of John Kay with a magnificent, beautifully bound two-volume edition of Kay’s portraits and caricatures, originally published in Edinburgh in 1837-8. Alan Bell, social historian and former Librarian of The London Library, introduces Kay’s life and remarkable achievement, emphasising how, with ‘the impression of a passing glance’, Kay created an engaging and unparalleled record of Edinburgh society during the Enlightenment. World-famous figures such as Adam Smith, Walter Scott, James Hutton, Joseph Black and even Vincent Lunardi (in his famous balloon) feature alongside all kinds of Edinburgh citizens - eminent doctors and scientists, lawyers and clerics, ladies of fashion and their admirers, soldiers and merchants, murderers and criminals. Volume 1: 824pp with 168 plates. Volume 2: 872pp with 188 plates.