Firebacks

Shape: rectangle with three-facetted arch

  1. 165

    hastings_048.jpg
    350 x 350 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Rectangular with low, 3-facetted arch; ovolo edging; shield of the Goldsmiths’ Company: quarterly Gules and Azure, in the first and fourth quarters a Leopard's Head affrontée Or, in the second and third quarters a Covered Cup between in chief two Buckles fesswise all of the last; behind the shield is a scrolled escutcheon.

    Notes: An unusually thick fireback. The Goldsmiths’ Company were granted arms in 1571.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Arms: Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths

    Manufactured: in the late 16th to early 17th century possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, John's Place, Bohemia Road, Hastings, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: HASMG: 1978.15 (part of the Hastings Museum museum group)

    Citation: Hodgkinson, J. S., 2010, British Cast-Iron Firebacks of the 16th to Mid-18th Centuries (Crawley, Hodgers Books).

  2. 938

    hennell_01.jpg
    850 x 695 mm

    Description: Rectangular with three-facetted arch; fillet edging; shield, crown and lion supporters of the French royal house of Valois.

    Notes: The arms date to before 1589 when the House of Valois was succeeded by the House of Bourbon. Lion supporters on the French royal arms are not common.

    Arms: France Royal

    Manufactured: in the late 16th century in France.

    Current location: not known.

  3. 438

    lewes,_sussex arch soc 078a.jpg
    600 x 740 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Rectangular with three sided arch; astragal edging; lion rampant crest beaneath a crown; the date split either side of the lion's head.

    Notes: The evenness of the casting, the form of the crown and the lion all suggest that the date is spurious.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 16 39

    Manufactured: in the early to mid 20th century in England.

    Current location: Anne of Cleves House, Southover High Street, Lewes, East Sussex, England.

    (part of the Sussex Archaeological Society museum group)

  4. 465

    little_horsted, college farm 03.jpg
    1020 x 870 mm

    Description: Rectangular with three-faced arch; ogee moulded edging; top centre, overlapping, crossed staples arranged diagonally, each pointing to a bottom corner.

    Notes: The crossed staple is the badge of the Nevill family, and this fireback came from Eridge Park, the seat of the Marquess of Abergavenny.

    Manufactured: in the 18th century possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Little Horsted, East Sussex, England.

    Citation: Hodgkinson, J. S., 2010, British Cast-Iron Firebacks of the 16th to Mid-18th Centuries (Crawley, Hodgers Books).