Iconographia Scotica de John Pinkerton - 1797: or Portraits of Illustrious Persons of Scotland

Very good copy of Pinkerton's collection of rare portraits of Scottish royalty, clergy and celebrities.

Complete with 63 finely engraved copperplates.

With portrait of cross-dressing Frances Stuart as frontispiece, engraved title page dated 1797, list of subscribers, advertisement to Part I, advertisement to Part III dated 1796, and 56 other portraits (one folding) and six engraved plates of royal seals.

With three portraits of Mary, Queen of Scots, and King James IV, two portraits of King James V, and individual portraits of Alexander III, David I, Malcom I, Robert II, Robert III, James I, James II, James III, James VI (later James I of England) and Scottish queens Mary of Guise, Margaret of Denmark, Anne of Denmark.

Among the other interesting characters are the Scottish polymath James Crichton, aka the Admirable Crichton, and Frances Stuart, Duchess of Richmond, a famous beauty at the court of King Charles II of England, cross-dressing as a man, as well as statesmen, clergy, martyrs, etc.

Portraits engraved by Trotter, Roberts, Birrell, Adam, Clamp, etc., after rare prints, illuminated manuscripts, paintings and tomb effigies by artists such as James Huysman, Paul Vansomer, Daniel Mytens, Hugo van der Goes, Wenceslaus Hollar, George Jameson, etc.

List of subscribers includes King George III, various aristocratic lords and ladies, Gothic novelist and slave owner William Beckford of Font Hill, English antiquarian Francis Douce (later Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum), and numerous booksellers and printsellers.

Full red calf leather binding with five raised bands, gilt title on spine, top and bottom of spine chipped, marble endpapers, A.E.G., scattered spotting and toning to text pages, some offsetting from the plates on to the text, but plates mostly clean and bright.