Portraits of members of the infamous 'Kit-Kat Club'

Godfrey Kneller

The Kit-Cat Club Done From the Original Paintings of Sr Godfrey Kneller by Mr. Faber. 1735. Sold by J. Tonson in the Strand, & Faber at the Golden Head in Bloomsbury Square. c.1735

Folio, contemporary half russia, worn, upper cover detached; Dedication leaf and 47 mezzotint portraits, one double-page, tissue guards.

An association of early 18th-century Whig leaders that met in London. Members included the writers Richard Steele, Joseph Addison, and William Congreve and such political figures as Robert Walpole and the duke of Marlborough. The club was the center of opposition during Queen Anne's Tory ministry (1710–14). They first met in the tavern of Christopher Cat, whose mutton pies were called kit-cats, then on the Strand near to where Simpson on the Strand is now. All member portraits were painted at the instigation ofthe publisher Jacob Tonson (club secretary) who had built a club room for the purpose of their meetings at Barn Elms. These portraits where engraved in mezzotint by John Faber, 1731-4, and published in 1735. 48 portraits engraved on 47 plates, some were left unfinished by Kneller and were thus engraved by Faber, and some appear to be 'replicas' of original portraits, engraved before the collection was made. All shown at a length between HL and TQL, thereafter known as 'Kitcat', with a crest, numbered 1-47 in lower right.

Light water-staining to upper margin, title and margins a little browned but plates generally clean, the second plate with small marginal tear.

£3800.00 (Stock Code: 12080)