Matthew Boulton's Set of Tassie's Catalogue of Engraved Gems
Raspe, R.E. 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: Printed for and Sold by James Tassie and J. Murray; C. Buckton, Printer, 1791. Two volumes, complete. 4to, contemporary tan calf-backed marbled boards; spines ruled in gilt with black spine labels and oval green volume numbers; all page edges yellow. Finely engraved frontispiece; titles printed in red and black; (8), lxxiv, (2), 496; (4), 497–800, 12, 50, 13, (3) pages, with facing text in English and French; 57 copperplate engravings by David Allan. Bindings sound, but worn at spine, with lightly cracked joints. Very good. Matthew Boulton's set of this scarce and still-important work, of which this is the best edition. Tassie was born of humble parentage near Glasgow in 1723. In the 1760s, he and Dr. Quin perfected an 'enamel' admirably suited by hardness and beauty of texture for the formation of gems and medallions. He moved to London to further his career as a gem-engraver and in 1775 issued the first catalogue of his works, a thin pamphlet detailing 2856 items. In 1791 the handsome catalogue offered here was published, enumerating nearly 16,000 pieces. At his death in 1799, the collection of Tassie's works numbered about 20,000 pieces. Rudolf Erich Raspe (1736–1794) was a German writer and antiquarian, to name two of his less colorful attributes. He ended up in England, where he published The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1785) and was employed by Matthew Boulton at his Dolcoath Mine in Cornwall, where he served as an assayer. This connection to Boulton makes the provenance of this particular set all the more attractive. Brunet 29604. Sinkankas 5357: "The catalog is followed by a supplement of additional gems, a useful list of the cabinets in Europe with names of their proprietors, a list of celebrated gem engravers, inscriptions found upon gems, the principal subjects portrayed, paste replicas of portraits issued by Tassie, and a table of concordances. The plates present several to as many as a dozen examples per plate, ranging from Egyptian subjects through several plates of cylinder seals, into engraved gems of classic to modern times." Ex Matthew Boulton Library, with the label from the 12 December 1986 Christie's sale of his library in both volumes.