Antique Print, Aquatint etching, Caricature, Medical, John Kay, Edinburgh, Scotland, Dr. James Hamilton Senior, Trade Mission Hospital, Mary Erskine

"Dr. James Hamilton, Senior"

Aquatint etching by John Kay for “Kay's Edinburgh Portraits"                                                                                                                                                                                             Published Edinburgh 1797

Description = A small etching of a proud, well-dressed portly gentleman of Edinburgh. In confident mid-stride, he is wearing the fashionable gentleman's dark dress-coat, cocked hat, powdered wig, frilled shirt/cuffs, and silver buckled shoes.

Condition = Excellent. Printed on Flax/hemp wove paper. The slight corrugation is due to the paper being dampened, at the time of printing, to help stretch the paper over the copper plate, and facilitate the uptake of ink in the etched grooves.

Size of paper =19.6cm x 25.8cm ( 7 2/3x 10 1/3 inch ) / Plate-mark = 5cm x 8.2cm ( 2 x 3 1/4 inch)                                                                                                                                                                                                            Certificate of authenticity supplied.

Doctor James Hamilton, Senior

“Dr Hamilton was for many years one of the ornaments of Edinburgh…At an early age he was elected one of the Physicians of the Royal Infirmary…for upwards of fifty years he continued to actively superintend these benevolent institutions…(gave) the world his well-known work, entitled “Observations on the Utility and Administration of Purgative Medicine in several Diseases”- one of the most elegant works which has ever issued from the press…”.

On Further research: it appears the Drs. Hamilton, Senior and Junior taught midwifery at the University of Edinburgh, was criticized by another Kay Caricature dedication, Dr. James Gregory, M.D. A consequence was court-proceeding by Hamilton Senior against Gregory for the lies deemed injurious to their reputations. This may have been reason enough to be chosen as a topic for caricature.

Trade Mission Hospital & Mary Erskine

 John Kay 1742-1826), Caricaturist.

John Kay was an apprenticed barber at 13, in 1771 managed to obtain the freedom to the city of Edinburgh when he joined the Company of the Barber-Surgeons. In 1784 he published his first caricature and in the following year, he opened a small print shop on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. He flourished with his sketches, and eventually published caricatures of local characters and odd folk that emerged from the Scottish Age of Enlightenment.