Tassie, James

Tassie, James (b Pollokshaws [now a suburb of Glasgow], 15 July 1735; d London, 1 June 1799).
Scottish maker of medallion portraits and reproductions of antique gems and cameos. He began his career as a stonemason, and in 1763—intending to set up as a sculptor—he moved to Dublin. There he met Dr Henry Quin, a physician who made casts from antique gems as a hobby, and together they developed a ‘white enamel composition’ suitable for reproducing gems (and for creating miniature portrait heads) in imitation of marble. Tassie successfully kept the secret of his vitreous paste and learned to use it so skilfully that (as well as varying the colour) he could make his reproductions opaque or transparent and imitate the varied layers of a cameo. In 1766 he settled in London, where he attained a considerable reputation; from 1769 to 1791 he exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and he made casts for Wedgwood. The German-born antiquary Rudolph Eric Raspe (1737–94), who is perhaps best remembered as the creator of the humorous character ‘Baron Munchausen’, issued a two-volume catalogue of Tassie's ‘ancient and modern engraved gems’ in 1791. In all, Tassie reproduced more than 15,000 gems, cameos, and medallions, and he made more than 500 medallion busts (his work is best represented in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh).

Tassie's nephew William Tassie (b London, 1777; d London, 26 Oct. 1860) succeeded to his business. He was equally industrious, but less skilful. Like his uncle, he was a kindly, popular man, and his studio in Leicester Square was much frequented by artists and literary men. In 1805 he won the main prize in the lottery when Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery pictures were disposed of. Tassie sold the pictures in the same year.