£150
4to, pp. [122] + frontispiece and 20 engraved plates. Nineteenth-century half calf, purple cloth boards, spine divided by raised bands gilt, brown morocco label. Some light toning and spotting, final plate shaved at fore-edge. Extremities a bit rubbed and scratched, cloth discoloured. Booklabel of Charles Whibley (‘Sum Caroli Whibley’) to pastedown.
Issued in several formats - this the smaller version with the plates not on india paper - this work shares a title with Pinkerton's compilation from the previous year but has a substantially different set of 'illustrious persons'. Pinkerton's portraits focussed mainly on Scottish royalty across recorded history, while Smith's figures almost all date from 1500-1750 and include more notable figures outside the royal line, including the founder of Marischal College, Fletcher of Saltoun, John Arbuthnott, and Colin Maclaurin, as well as John Knox the elder and younger and Robert Traill.
The copy of the writer and associate of T.S. Eliot Charles Whibley (1859-1930).
