Tuesday, October 05, 2010

The Scottish Gemmological Association: Tassies, by John Smith

The British Geological Survey, Murchison House, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 - United Kingdom

John Smith retired from being Director in charge of Glass and Chandeliers at Mallett and Son (Antiques) Ltd in 2005.  He is Chairman of The Glass Circle and a Fellow of The Corning Museum of Glass. He has written a monograph on James Tassie, with particular emphasis on his technical methods.

James Tassie (1735-1799) was a fine modeller who learned how to make permanent replicas in glass of his wax portrait reliefs. Most of his sitters were Scottish. He also made replicas of Roman and later intaglios, which were catalogued for Catherine The Great of Russia (who had around 20,000 of them) by Mr Raspe, who also wrote the adventures of Baron Munchausen. The portraits are of great historical interest. The intaglios are no longer kept in boxes but are now in great demand in the jewellery trade for mounting in rings and pendants.
The talk will emphasise Tassie's known production methods which have been much misunderstood.

Talk starts at 7:30 pm.  Doors open from 7:00 pm.   Admission: £5

Contact: e-mail: info@scotgem.co.uk    website: www.scotgem.co.uk