£200 - £300
A white paste relief of Marc Maer, inscribed MARC MAER 1797, Tassie F, in a later oval velvet covered frame with gilt slip, the portrait 8cm deep, together with another of Christian Alexander, dated 1791. (2)
NB - James Tassie was born in Pollokshaws near Glasgow in Scotland in 1735. He began as a stonemason who turned himself into an artist and entrepreneur. He invented a glass-paste composition which he used during the Classical Revival to create a series of casts of antique gems, cameos and intaglios in coloured potash-lead glass. His antique gems were avidly collected by patrons such as Catherine the Great of Russia. He also became famous for modelling various series of portrait busts of distinguished figures of the later 18th Century, many modelled from life. Tassie established himself as the leading supplier of portrait medallions, making around five hundred of his contemporaries.
Both medallions in good order but the frames a little age tired.
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