[Rarebooks] fs: Rudolphe Raspe's 1791 Tassie "Gem & Intaglio" Catalog

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

A Catalog with Wedgwood Connections by the author of "The Adventures of 
Baron Munchausen"..


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, modeller; arranged and described by R.E. Raspe and 
illustrated with copper-plates, to which is prefixed, an introduction on 
the various uses of this collection, the origin of the art of engraving on 
hard stones, and the progress of pastes.

London; James Tassie: 1791.

James Tassie, whom Eliza Meteyard called "one of the most remarkable 
artistic characters of the eighteenth century" (Life & Works of Wedgwood), 
was a Scottish stonemason turned artist/entrepreneur who found fame and 
fortune amidst the Classical Revival by creating an excellent series of 
casts of antique gems, cameos and intaglios in colored paste, enamel and 
sulfur. Tassie developed his techniques using colored potash-lead glass in 
plaster-of-Paris moulds in the 1760s and 70s. He modeled various lines 
including one of portrait busts, did some on-off work for Wedgwood, and 
eventually created copies of more than 15,000 antique classical carved gems 
and cameos using originals borrowed from the great private collections. 
Tassie made one set for Catherine the Great, and Josiah Wedgwood bought 
copies of many of Tassie's cameos to use as a basis for his own works.

Tassie and Wedgwood became business rivals and eventually started sniping 
at each other's productions. Wedgwood praised Tassie's skill while also 
noting that his own seals and cameos were better, to which Tassie countered 
that his were better because his glass paste and sulfur productions were 
not subject to the distorting effects of shrinkage which affected 
Wedgwood's works. The Adam-era marketplace would prove big enough for both 
men, and for many years well-to-do collectors filled cabinets with paste 
and pottery cameos and intaglios, and indeed Tassie's nephew William would 
carry on the work into the 1840s.

Tassie issued several catalogs, but this is by far the most sumptuous and 
definitive edition. Rudolph Raspe, who was also the anonymous author of 
"The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" and several works on geology, was a 
geologist and antiquarian who had been keeper of the Landgrave of Hesse's 
rich collection of antique gems and medals. Charged with removing certain 
valuable coins from the collection, he fled to England where James Tassie 
hired him in 1785 to prepare this catalog, which not only includes a 
complete listing of Tassie's reproductions, but also includes information 
on the history and style of engraved gems, the myths behind them, and other 
topics.

Raspe's catalog of Tassie's productions is an important and exhaustive 
reference. It is interesting to note the vast array of styles and formats 
that various busts, heads and scenes came in -the variety of portraits of 
Medusa alone is quite an interesting revelation. The list of subscribers 
includes James Boswell, Andrew Plummer, the Universities of Glasgow, 
Edinburgh and Goettingen, and Josiah Wedgwood. Also worthy of note is the 
engraved frontispiece showing a helmeted Minerva seated at a carved 
drawing-room table opening a cabinet; arranged in front of her are cameos 
and cameo rings.

Hardcovers. 2 volumes. 9.25"x11.5", (Vol. 1) frontispiece, title pages, 
[4], lxxiv, [2], 496, (Vol. 2) title pages, 497-800, 12, 50, 13 [2]; 58 
engraved plates (numbered 1-57 and 9 bis) . Bound in period blue boards, 
rebacked with newer cloth spines and labels; some wear and soil to the 
covers; some internal soil, several pages offset browned, but a very nice 
set overall. [04375] $3,500.00

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