![William tassie portrait](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/William_tassie_portrait.jpg)
William Tassie (177726 October 1860) was a British gem engraver and cameo modeller of Scottish descent, who worked in London in the early 19th century. He took over the business of his uncle,
James Tassie
James Tassie (1735–1799) was a Scottish gem engraver and modeller. He is remembered for a particular style of miniature medallion heads, portraying the profiles of the rich and famous of Britain, and for making and selling large numbers of "T ...
, after James's death in 1799. He added largely to his uncle's collection of casts and medallions. His portrait of
Pitt, in particular, was very popular, and circulated widely.
On 28 January 1805, Tassie won the
Boydell Shakespeare Gallery and its painting collection in a lottery held to pay off the debts of its owner,
John Boydell
John Boydell (; 19 January 1720 (New Style) – 12 December 1804) was a British publisher noted for his reproductions of engravings. He helped alter the trade imbalance between Britain and France in engravings and initiated a British tradition i ...
. Tassie's three-guinea ticket won the top prize among the 22,000 sold. Boydell had died just before the drawing. His nephew
Josiah Boydell offered to buy the gallery and its paintings back from Tassie for £10,000, but Tassie refused and auctioned the paintings at
Christie's.
[Friedman, 4, 87–90; Merchant, 70–75.] The painting collection and two reliefs by
Anne Damer fetched a total of £6,181 18s. 6d.
Tassie died in 1860 and is buried in
Brompton Cemetery
Brompton Cemetery (originally the West of London and Westminster Cemetery) is a London cemetery, managed by The Royal Parks, in West Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. Establ ...
, London. He bequeathed to the
Board of Manufactures
During the Enlightenment and the industrial revolution, Scottish industrial policy was made by the Board of Trustees for Fisheries, Manufactures and Improvements in Scotland, which sought to build an economy complementary, not competitive, with ...
,
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
, an extensive and valuable collection of casts and medallions by his uncle and himself, along with portraits of James Tassie and his wife by the painter
David Allan, and a series of
watercolour
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
studies by
George Sanders
George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 – 25 April 1972) was a British actor and singer whose career spanned over 40 years. His heavy, upper-class English accent and smooth, bass voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous chara ...
from pictures of the Dutch and Flemish schools.
References
Bibliography
*Friedman, Winifred H. ''Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery''. New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1976. .
*Gray, John Miller.
James and William Tassie: A Biographical and Critical Sketch, with a Catalog of Their Portraits'. Edinburgh: Walter Greenoak Patterson, 1894.
*Merchant, W. Moelwyn. ''Shakespeare and the Artist''. London: Oxford University Press, 1959.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tassie, William
1777 births
1860 deaths
Burials at Brompton Cemetery
Engraved gem artists
British jewellers