Firebacks

Description: Rectangular; fillet edging; fillet parallel to top edge separating top quarter; two fillets parallel to sides separating side quarters; halves of date in top corner squares.

Notes: Numeral style is typical of first half of 18th century.

Inscription: 17 36

Description: Central panel, cavetto-canted rectangle with arch; bud and annulet edging (in alternate threes); pictorial panel portraying Europa being carried to sea by Zeus, disguised as a bull; two female attendants wave from the right shore; two putti attend, one below with a bow and arrow; trees to right and left; clouds and sun above. Same shaped, fillet-edged border with floral scrolls top and sides; at the bottom, a cartouche bearing EB monogram between oak leaf and acorn fronds; on top, central scallop shell between floral scrolls with dolphin’s heads.

Notes: The central design is closely based on an illustration by Bernard Salomon, first published in a 1557 edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses and copied in subsequent editions by Virgil Solis (1514-62). The initials, EB, are likely to be those of the pattern maker. The similarity between the execution of this picture and those on firebacks bearing the SHR monogram suggests the possibility of a common source. Ten rivets are the result of later repair.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: EB

Description: Rectangular; no edging; arrangement of eight fleur de lys stamps formed of, at top centre, four in a cross shape, with two in line on each side; on each side of the cross arrangement is a naked standing putto stamp.

Notes: The putti are an unusual addition to what is a quite crudely decorated fireback

Description: Low arched rectangular shape; broad rebated fillet edging; stylised Tudor royal shield, crown and supporters (dragon and greyhound); Tudor rose in top left corner; portcullis in top right corner.

Notes: Pastiche 'Tudor' design by George Shaw of Saddleworth, Lancashire, c.1850, possibly intended to be passed off as genuine Tudor. A fireback of the same armorial design within a different, arched edging is at Wirkworth Castle, Northumberland (see no. 1246).

Arms: Tudor royal

Description: Arched rectangular shape; ovolo-moulded edging; Tudor royal shield within a cartouche, garter, crown, motto and supporters (crowned lion and dragon); Tudor rose to right of lion’s head, portcullis to left of dragon’s head.

Notes: The cartouche enclosing the shield is an unusual feature. A recasting. Mallam's auction, Abingdon, 9 Aug 2014, lot 1208 (£100).

Inscription: Garter and Royal mottoes [not legible]

Arms: Tudor royal (prob. Elizabeth I)

Description: Quasi-arched rectangular shape with symmetrical double fillet rococo edging; high relief pictorial battle scene with mounted knights carrying lances and pennants.

Notes: The battle scene may have been inspired by more than one classical portayal of a battle in history; likely sources are 'The Defeat of the Pisans at the Tower of St Vicenzo' by Giorgio Vasari and 'Alexander the Great's crossing of the Granicus' by Charles Le Brun. An engraving by Daniel Kellerthaler (1574-1648) has a similar frame enclosing an unidentified cavalry conflict.

Copies of this fireback are known.