medallion heads, portraying the profiles of the rich and famous of Britain, and for making and selling large numbers of "Tassie casts" of engraved gems
for collectors.
Life
He was born of humble parentage at
stonemason, but, having seen the collection of paintings brought together in Glasgow by Robert Foulis and Andrew Foulis, the printers, he removed to Glasgow, attended the academy which had been established there by the brothers Foulis, and became one of the most distinguished pupils of the school.[1]
Subsequently, he visited
Royal Academy
from 1769 to 1791.
In 1775, he published the first catalogue of his works, a thin pamphlet detailing 2856 items.
This was followed in 1791 by a large catalogue, in two volumes quarto, with illustrations etched by
St. Petersburg.[4] Tassie sent the gems impressions that produced for Catherine II of Russia, in four deliveries between 1781 and 1781.[5]
In addition to his impressions from antique gems, Tassie executed many large profile medallion portraits of his contemporaries, and these form the most original and definitely artistic class of his works. They were modelled in wax from the life or from drawings done from the life, and when this was impossible from other authentic sources.
They were then cast in white enamel paste, the whole medallion being sometimes executed in this material; while in other cases the head only appears in enamel, relieved against a background of ground-glass tinted of a subdued color by paper placed behind.
His first large enamel portrait was that of John Dolbon, son of Sir William Dolbon, Bart., modelled in 1793 or 1794; and the series possesses great historic interest, as well as artistic value, including as it does portraits of Adam Smith, Sir Henry Raeburn, Drs James Beattie, Hugh Blair, Black and Cullen, and many other celebrated men of the latter half of the 18th century.[3]
At the time of his death, in 1799, the collection of Tassie's works numbered about 20,000 pieces.[3]
In the 1830s, Tassie's pieces continued to be sold, and H. Laing, engraver and manufacturer of James Tassie's composition seals was selling licensed copies of Tassie's work from a shop at 32 Princes Street in the centre of Edinburgh.[6] Moreover, during the 19th century, Andrew Dickson White, the first president of the Cornell University bought and offered to the University an extensive Tassie's daktyliotheca, purchased from a German manufacturer called Gustav Eichler (1801–77).[7]
In 2008, a bar in the Shawlands area of Glasgow was renamed "The James Tassie" in his honour. This bar is affectionately known to regular patrons as "The Tassies".[citation needed]
Gallery
Cameo medallion of James Tassie by William Tassie in the style invented by Tassie
Henry Raeburn by James Tassie, a typical Tassie medallion
Cameo ring, 1788, by James Tassie. V&A Museum no. M.93-1969
Graeplar, Daniel (2010). Frederiksen, Rune; Marchand, Eckhart (eds.). Plaster Casts: Making, Collecting and Displaying from Classical Antiquity to the Present. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Raspe, Rudolf Erich (1791). A descriptive catalogue of a general collection of ancient and modern engraved gems, cameos as well as intaglios. London: J. Tassie and J. Murray.
Cameo medallion of James Tassie by William Tassie in the style invented by Tassie
Henry Raeburn by James Tassie, a typical Tassie medallion
Cameo ring, 1788, by James Tassie. V&A Museum no. M.93-1969
