TASSIE, JAMES, modeller, whose history is intimately connected with a branch of the fine arts in Great Britain, was born of obscure parents at Pollockshaws, near Glasgow, about the year 1755. He began life as a country stonemason, without the expectation of ever rising higher. Going to Glasgow on a fair-day, to amuse himself with his companions, at the time when the celebrated printers, Robert and Andrew Foulis, 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 Foulis' Academy acquired a knowledge of drawing which unfolded and improved his natural taste. Resorting to Dublin for employment, he became known to Dr Quin, who was amusing himself in his leisure hours with endeavouring to imitate antique gems in coloured pastes, and take accurate impressions of the engravings that were on
them. Dr Quin, in looking out for an assistant, soon discovered Tassie to be one in whom he could place perfect confidence.
That art was known to the ancients, and many specimens from ancient gems 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 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, the art 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 the art has been carried to such perfection in Great Britain, and has attracted the attention of Europe.
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 Tassie to repair to London, and to devote himself to the preparation and sale of those pastes as his profession. In 1766 Tassie arrived in London. Diffident and modest to excess, he was very unfit to introduce himself to the attentions of persons of rank and affluence; besides, the number of engraved gems in Great Britain was small, and those few were little noticed. Gradually he emerged from obscurity and obtained competence; and, what was to him much more, he was able to increase his collection, and add higher degrees of excellence to his art. His name soon became respected, and the first cabinets in Europe were made accessible to him. He uniformly paid 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 fraudulent persons for real gems. His fine taste led him to be peculiarly careful of the impression; and he always destroyed those with which he was in the least dissatisfied.
To the ancient gem 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 ones. Many years before he died, he executed for the Empress Catherine II. of Russia a commission consisting of about 15,000 different engravings from gems. At his death, in 1799, they amounted to nearly 20,000—a collection of gem engravings unequalled in the world. Every lover of the fine arts must be sensible of the advantage of such a collection 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. In private life Tassie was universally esteemed for his uniform piety, and for the simplicity, modesty, and benevolence that marked his whole character.
James Tassie's nephew, William, carried on the business in London after his uncle's death, and who still survives (June 1860) as an octogenarian. William Tassie has a capital portrait of his uncle, painted by David Allan. During the elder Tassie's life several catalogues of his collection were published. The two most important of these were drawn up by Rudolph Eric Raspe, F.R.S., a German. Their titles are: Account of the Present Arrangement of Mr James Tassie's Collection of Pastes and Impressions, from Ancient and Modern Gems: London 1786; A Descriptive Catalogue of a General Collection of Ancient and Modern Engraved Gems, Cameos, as well as Intaglios, taken from the most celebrated Cabinets in Europe, and cast in Coloured Pastes, White Enamel, and Sulphur, by James Tassie, with Plates. In English and French, London, 1791, 2 vols. 4to. This last is a curious and valuable work.