(Ca. 1780s) Dr. Joseph Priestley portrait cameo by Tassie. Red sulphur in gilt cardboard frame. 21 x 27 mm. Raspe (A Descriptive Catalogue of a General Collection of Ancient and Modern Engraved Gems Cameos as well as Intaglios, 1791) 15781.

Bust of Priestley to right on obverse, FREWIN F below. Attractively detailed gilt cardboard frame around circumference, numbered 74 in ink at 6 o'clock. Back shows natural crystalline texture with only trivial chipping at the periphery and a little wrinkle in the frame at 3 o'clock. Though this bust may have been executed by Frewin in this form, the bust was first accomplished by John Gregory Hancock in 1783. Dr. Joseph Priestley was widely celebrated in America and found asylum in the woods of Pennsylvania in the final years of his life. He died in Northumberland, Pennsylvania in 1804, ten years after fleeing England to the United States as a political radical. His resume and legacy are broad, but identifying oxygen for the first time and helping to found the Unitarian Church are two good places to start a conversation into Priestley's relevance and importance.

From the Richard Margolis Collection. Earlier from Christopher Eimer in London, June 1999.

Estimate: $500