TASSIE (James) modeller, whose history is intimately connected with a branch of the fine arts in Britain, was born in the neighbourhood of Glasgow of obscure parents; and began his life as a country stone mason, without the expectation of ever rising higher. Going to Glasgow on a fair day, to enjoy himself with his companions, at the time when the Foulis's were attempting to establish an academy for the fine arts in that city, he saw their collection of paintings, and felt an irresistible impulse to become a painter. He removed to Glasgow; and in the academy acquired a knowledge of drawing, which unfolded and improved
improved his natural taste. He was frugal, industrious, and persevering; but he was poor, and was under the necessity of devoting himself to stone-cutting for his support: not without the hopes that he might one day be a statuary if he could not be a painter. Resorting to Dublin for employment, he became known to Dr Quin, who was amusing himself in his leisure hours with endeavouring to imitate the precious stones in coloured pastes, and take accurate impressions of the engravings that were on them.
That art was known to the ancients; and many specimens from them are now in the cabinets of the curious. It seems to have been lost in the middle ages; was revived in Italy under Leo X. and the Medici family at Florence; became more perfect in France under the regency of the Duke of Orleans, by his labours and those of Homberg. By those whom they instructed as assistants in the laboratory it continued to be practised in Paris, and was carried to Rome. Their art was kept a secret, and their collections were small. It is owing to Quin and to Tassie that it has been carried to such high perfection in Britain, and attracted the attention of Europe.
Dr Quin, in looking out for an assistant, soon discovered Tassie to be one in whom he could place perfect confidence. He was endowed with fine taste: he was modest and unassuming: he was patient; and possessed the highest integrity. The Doctor committed his laboratory and experiments to his care. The associates were fully successful; and found themselves able to imitate all the gems, and take accurate impressions of the engravings.
As the Doctor had followed the subject only for his amusement, when the discovery was completed, he encouraged Mr Tassie to repair to London, and to devote himself to the preparation and sale of those pastes as his profession.
In 1766 he arrived in the Capital. But he was diffident and modest to excess; very unfit to introduce himself to the attention of persons of rank and of affluence: besides, the number of engraved gems in Britain was small; and those few were little noticed. He long struggled under difficulties which would have discouraged any one who was not possessed of the greatest patience, and the warmest attachment to the subject. He gradually emerged from obscurity, obtained competence; and what to him was much more, he was able to increase his collection, and add higher degrees of perfection to his art. His name soon became respected, and the first cabinets in Europe were open for his use; and he uniformly preferred the greatest attention to the exactness of the imitation and accuracy of the engraving, so that many of his pastes were sold on the Continent by the fraudulent for real gems. His fine taste led him to be peculiarly careful of the impression; and he uniformly destroyed those with which he was in the least dissatisfied. The art has been practised of late by others; and many thousands of pastes have been sold as Tassie's, which he would have considered as injurious to his fame. Of the fame of others he was not envious; for he uniformly spoke with frankness in praise of those who executed them well, though they were endeavouring to rival himself.
To the ancient engravings he added a numerous collection of the most eminent modern ones; many of
which approach in excellence of workmanship, if not in simplicity of design and chastity of expression, to the most celebrated of the ancient. Many years before he died he executed a commission for the late Empress of Russia, consisting of about 15,000 different engravings (See GEM, Encycl.). At his death, in 1799, they amounted to near 20,000; a collection of engravings unequalled in the world. Every lover of the fine arts must be sensible of the advantage of it for improvement in knowledge and in taste. The collection of Feloix at Paris consisted of 1800 articles; and that of Dehn at Rome of 2500.
For a number of years, Mr Tassie practised the modelling of portraits in wax, which he afterwards moulded and cast in paste. By this, the exact likeness of many eminent men of the present age will be transmitted to posterity as accurately as those of the philosophers and great men have been by the ancient statuary. In taking likenesses he was, in general, uncommonly happy; and it is remarkable, that he believed there was a certain kind of inspiration (like that mentioned by the poets) necessary to give him full success. The writer of this article, in conversing with him repeatedly on the subject, always found him fully persuaded of it. He mentioned many instances in which he had been directed by it; and even some, in which, after he had laboured in vain to realize his ideas on the wax, he had been able, by a sudden flash of imagination, to please himself in the likeness several days after he had last seen the original.
He possessed also an uncommonly fine taste in architecture, and would have been eminent in that branch if he had followed it.
In private life Mr Tassie was universally esteemed for his uniform piety, and for the simplicity, the modesty, and benevolence, that shone in the whole of his character.