Boscobel Acquires Rare Portrait Miniatures

Boscobel Restoration, Inc. is pleased to announce an important, new acquisition. At an auction held at DuMouchelles in Detroit, Michigan, on March 14, Boscobel placed the winning bid for paste miniatures of King George III and Queen Charlotte of England. The portraits are by James Tassie and are believed to date from the late eighteenth century. They were formerly part of the collection of D.L. Wilkus of Detroit, Michigan. The oval white miniatures show side profiles of the King and Queen facing each other, each measuring 2 inches by 1 1/2 inches, in a single gilt bronze and wood frame believed to be the original.

James Tassie (1735-1799) was a Scot, a member of the Royal Academy, and a friendly rival to Josiah Wedgwood. He is the inventor of the glass-paste composition which he used on many of his miniature portraits. Tassie produced more than 500 portraits, many of them modeled from life, in his glass paste. He also supplied many of the classical portrait medallions available through Wedgwood, and he and Wedgwood occasionally supplied each other with models. Josiah Wedgwood first discussed producing portrait medallions of George III and Queen Charlotte in 1771 – feeling confident that there was a market for the likenesses among their courtiers and faithful subjects. It is possible that both Wedgwood and Tassie used identical molds for the likenesses. In 1773, Wedgwood issued his first catalogue containing 609 portrait medals and medallions of great figures in the Western and Classical Worlds. There were 122 images of important contemporary figures available - including the King and Queen - listed under the heading, “Heads of Illustrious Moderns.”

Boscobel’s builder States Morris Dyckman was a Loyalist during the American Revolution and lived in London from 1779 through 1789 working as a clerk for the British Quartermaster General. During this period, he acquired a number of household goods and various souvenirs that he shipped home to America. We are certain that he owned portrait miniatures of the King and Queen because they appear in the estate inventory taken at his death in 1806. Among the pictures listed are “the King & queen of England in Ivory. Also listed is “1 picture of the King of England gilt....” In the 1824 inventory of Dyckman’s son Peter, taken at Boscobel following his death in 1824, they are listed again in the front drawing room as “Ivory Heads of the King & Queen of England $15.” The exact subjects are confirmed in The History of the County of Westchester, Vol. 1, 1881, where the author describes various items shown to him by Dyckman family descendants during his visit, including “Miniature in ivory of George the Third and Queen Charlotte executed by English prisoners in India.” This type of poetic license in describing historic relics is typical of the period and does not rule out the fact that they were probably Tassie miniatures. His glass paste medallions could easily have been mistaken for ivory and certainly were the type of Royal portraits that would have been available for purchase in London when States Dyckman lived there.

The portrait miniatures bear an original label on the back of the elaborate frame: “Miers Profile Painter and jeweller, No 111 Strand London, opposite Exeter Change. Miniatures set and framed. Hair-work warranted peculiarly neat.” Several weeks after acquiring the portraits, it was discovered that there is a silhouette of States Morris Dyckman in the Boscobel collection and on exhibit in the museum that was acquired by States in the 1780s and that bears the same maker’s label, Meirs of London, on the back of the frame. This exciting connection establishes that Dyckman originally patronized the same merchant that is responsible for the custom frame used for George III and Queen Charlotte. It also opens the possibility that Meirs supplied Dyckman with his portrait miniatures of the King and Queen.

Boscobel’s Executive Director Charles Lyle has been searching for appropriate miniatures of King George III and Queen Charlotte for several years. “The reason I was so keen about finding miniatures of the King and Queen,” said Lyle, “is that they make a strong interpretive statement at the start of the tour about Dyckman’s Loyalist beliefs. Most people in America had framed prints of George Washington on the wall during this period. We have the King and Queen of England.” The framed miniatures are hung in the Front Drawing Room, which was considered to be the “best” and most formal room in the house, and which is the room the Dyckmans chose to proudly display their miniatures originally.



Boscobel Acquires Rare Globes

Recently, Charles Lyle, executive director, announced that Boscobel had acquired a rare pair of celestial and terrestrial globes c. 1780, from Northeast Auction in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The globes were purchased with the assistance of a generous gift from Mr. Robert G. Goelet, Chairman, Goelet, LLC, New York, and vice president of Boscobel's board of directors.

The globes were made by "Wm Bardin, No. 16 Salisbury Square, Fleet Street, London." They are tabletop models, measuring 25 inches high, on tripod stands with a turned pedestal and cabriole legs ending in pad feet and are displayed in the upstairs library/drawing room.

In discussing the acquisition, Mr. Lyle commented, "We have been searching for appropriate globes that would replicate the ones States Dyckman purchased in 1787. We consider ourselves fortunate to find examples that are in good condition and which date from the eighteenth century."

In a handwritten list Dyckman prepared on September 27, 1787, of various purchases of household and other items to be shipped to Kings Ferry, there is a reference to payments to a "Mr. Adams" for "an Extra pair of Globes" and "for packing Case" to ship them home. Although the original bill for the globes does not survive, there are two separate bills in the Dyckman papers dated 1787 for the purchase of various instruments from George Adams, who describes himself on his

A pair of globes c. 1780, have been acquired by Boscobel Restoration. The globe in the forefront is the celestial globe; the other globe is the terrestrial.

letterhead as the "Mathematical Instrument Maker, to His Majesty…" Not long after his return to the Hudson Valley and just prior to his marriage to Elizabeth, Dyckman needed money and was forced in 1793 to sell his entire library to Chancellor Robert Livingston of Clermont, a well-known New York patriot and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In a letter from Robert Livingston to his brother regarding his purchase of Dyckman's library, Livingston note: "{Dyckman} has also a handsome pair of globes . . .perhaps you might get him to throw them in . . . " Presumably he did because there are no additional references to the globes in the Dyckman inventories and papers.

A terrestrial globe represents the geographical and political features of the earth at a given period of time. As described in the 1797 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Terrestrial globe, by means of maps accurately delineated on a spherical ball, enable a gentleman to understand "the true situation of the different places of the earth with regard to one another … as, how far distant they are from us, what hour of the day it is, what season of the year . . . at any particular place." A celestial globe features the constellations in expertly drawn cartouches. It shows the relative positions of the stars as seen from the earth with each star plotted on the globe at the point corresponding to the spot on Earth where it appears to be directly overhead.

In discussing the importance of the acquisition, Mr. Lyle said, "The globes open up an important new dimension to the interpretation of States Dyckman and his extraordinary library. They also help us to better understand and explain the enthusiasm and interest that gentlemen of the period had in science and in subjects such as geography and astronomy."

Boscobel in the News
Boscobel is cited as one of the "Ten Great Places of Historic Proportion."

In the May 16, 2003, issue of the Travel Section of USA Today, Boscobel was mentioned as one of the "Ten Great Places of Historic Proportion," in America. The article written by Shawn Sell describes Boscobel thus, "High above the Hudson River, across from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, is one of the most elegant neoclassical mansions in America." Built in 1804 by States Morris Dyckman, "it contains beautifully appointed interiors and an important collection of neoclassic decorative arts. Notice the trompe l'oeil carved swags framing the second-story portico."

The article resulted from a conversation with Chuck Fischer, author of Great American Houses and Gardens, who was sharing his favorite historic properties with Mr. Sell.

For the full article, click here.

The Ravine Garden

In June 2003, Boscobel opened the newest addition to its Woodland Trail. In the ravine at the beginning of the trail, a new garden area has been developed at the base of a scenic waterfall. Designed by Hudson Valley landscape architect, Stephan A. Yarabek, ASLA, the plantings used are predominantly native to the Hudson Valley and in a white palette and includes such plant materials as dogwood, shadbush, mountain laurel, and sweetshrub with perennial underpinnings of marsh marigolds, toad lilies and ferns. The garden is further enhanced with non-invasive ornamental plantings such as fothergilla and Cunningham's white rhododendrons.

The plantings are arranged in an informal, natural pattern along a curved pathway. The path leads to the base of a series of man-made waterfalls and cascades and a 15-foot long serpentine-shaped bench made of eastern red cedar that was donated to Boscobel by the Friends of Boscobel in 2002. The water flows from a small lake seen at the entrance to the property, under a stone bridge, down the waterfall and cascades (with a vertical drop of forty feet), through a stone-filled streambed, under a rustic bridge, and ending in a man-made lower pond. So there is a continuous flow in the stream, the water is then re-circulated from the lower to the upper pond by a system of underground pumps and pipes.

The Woodland Trail first opened to the public on October 21, 1997. It is a 1.25 mile walk through a twenty-nine acre tract of land south of the formal landscape at Boscobel that had not previously been developed for public use. "The trail," said Boscobel's executive director Charles Lyle, "provides our visitors with more to see and do at the site in addition to touring the mansion. It has a totally different feeling from the formal gardens and landscape and greatly enhances one's visit to Boscobel." The Woodland Trail winds though a heavily forested area with rustic pavilions and benches strategically placed along the way featuring dramatic views of the Hudson River, the Hudson Highlands and U.S. Military Academy at West Point. It is a quiet place where one can reconnect with nature and the rich ecological and cultural history of the Hudson River National Heritage Area.

For those wishing to visit only the gardens and walk the trail, a "grounds only" pass is available for $7. There is a self-guided Woodland Trail brochure available at the Visitors' Center.


Back to Top