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. 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.

Curators at Boscobel 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 "picture of the King of England gilt."

In the 1824 inventory of Dyckman's son Peter, taken at Boscobel following his death, 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 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.