About the Book
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.
Each volume is 264 x 204 mm hardback. Volume 1: 824pp with 168 plates. Volume 2: 872pp with 188 plates.
The Author
John Kay
Although John Kay (1742–1826) served his apprenticeship as a barber and followed this profession for many years in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town, his consuming passion was observing and drawing the world around him. In 1785 he gave up his barber shop in Parliament Square to become a full-time sketcher and painter of miniatures, producing an estimated 900 portraits and caricatures over a long and prolific career.Related
-
Hardback | Pub: 11 Apr 2016£25.00The Making of George Wyllie has been co-written by his elder daughter, Louise Wyllie, and arts journalist Jan Patience. Containing never-beforeseen images and fresh insight into his influences and early life, this book seeks to answer questions...
-
Paperback | Pub: 07 Jan 2021£20.00In 1725 an extensive military road and bridge-building programme was implemented by the British crown that would transform 18th-century Scotland. Aimed at pacifying some of her more inaccessible regions and containing the Jacobite threat, General...
-
Hardback | Pub: 25 Oct 2018£25.00Margaret Fay Shaw took her first photographs of the Hebrides in 1924 whilst travelling through the islands by bicycle. It was her photography which first brought her to the attention of folklorist John Lorne Campbell, and after their marriage in...
-
Hardback | Pub: 04 Oct 2010£30.00The Hebrides of Scotland – around 500 diverse islands – form the north-western Atlantic fringe of Europe. This book surveys the cultural landscape of this dramatically beautiful, complex and conflicted area, with emphasis on what may be...
