Portraits published in Kay's Edinburgh Portraits, 1837-8. John Kay was born in 1742 at Dalkeith, and originally worked for a barber until a pension from a benefactor enabled him to set himself up as a printseller and artist. From 1784 he etched over 900 caricatures of Edinburgh characters, which were collected and published in the 1830s, from which time these prints date.
All these are copper plate etchings, variously dated on the plates from the mid 1780s to the early 1800s. All have wide margins allowing framing to show the good clear plate marks. Some have slight age browning and very slight soiling, otherwise they are in very good condition. The size given is measured to the plate mark (as shown in the images.) Most are accompanied by the full text for each plate, as published in the 1830s (making this a rather long page, but with some interesting reading in places.)