Firebacks

Description: Ogee-arched rectangular shape, centred by a scroll-edged cartouche enclosing a pair of armorial ovals, the left cast with a crowned lion rampant, the right with a salamander surrounded by flames, all between a pair of greyhound supporters and edged with bellflower-decorated pilasters.

Notes: The heraldic design depicting the marriage of Paul de Chabannes (1686-1769), comte de Chabannes de Vergers, with Marie-Madeleine Sallonyer on 1st July 1715 (whose shield is a golden salamander bedded in red hot fire on a blue shield).

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Arched rectangular central panel; bead-and-pellet edging; pictorial scene of a male figure seated in a chariot, his left arm resting on the side of the chariot, his right hand holding a sceptre at arm’s length, the chariot drawn by two lions across a ground with small bushes; clouds above with the personification of the wind blowing to the left; arched rectangular border with fillet edging; repeated, linked scroll-work on all sides; on top a vase of fruit between two mirrored serpents. A recasting.

Notes: Similar to other designs incorporating figures in chariots, though not from the same series; a recasting has the date, 1702, superimposed

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Rectangular; simulated twisted rope edging with a gap, top centre; centre, shield, baron's coronet, supporters and crest; in each top corner, heraldic badge - a Sea Lion holding an anchor.

Notes: The arms are of Sir Hudson Ewbanke Kearley, Bt., 1st Baron Devonport (1856-1934); created 1910, he was elevated to Viscount in 1917, thus the fireback would have been cast between 1910 and 1917. Blazon: Azure in chief two Mitres Argent garnished Or and in base a Square Tower of the second, a baronet's badge in chief; Supporters: On either side a Sea Lion Argent crined finned and tufted Or each gorged with a Collar Gules charged with three Roses of the second and each supporting a Spear erect proper; Crest: An Ancient Ship Or the Mainsail Azure charged with a Sea Lion of the first; Motto: Fit Via Vi (The way is made through strength). A version with the same arms and badges has an arched rectangular shape and plain edging.

Inscription: FIT VIA VI

Arms: Hudson Ewbanke Kearley, 1st Baron Devonport (later 1st Viscount)

Description: Arched rectangular central panel with astragal edging; allegorical figure of Peace, her right arm raised and her left hand holding an olive branch, standing amid the weapons of war; above her swags of drapery and fruit enclosing the word, PAX; arched rectangular shaped border with ovolo-moulded egg and dart edging; top centre, lion's face from which issue festoons of fruit and leaves which descend down each side, suspended from rings; at the bottom, a motto scroll bearing the date; on top, the face of a putto between two descending fish.

Notes: A more-than-usually elaborate border to a typical central panel.

Inscription: PAX / 16 63

Description: Narrow, arched rectangular central panel with bead edging; a standing female figure in flowing robes, facing forward, holding in her right hand a slanting inverted anchor, a poorly modelled left arm apparently beckoning; arched rectangular border with cavetto-moulded edging enclosing, on each side of the central panel, a festoon of acanthus suspended from a ribbon bow; along the base is a line of acanthus leaves; under the arch, descending foliage.

Notes: The figure is likely to be an allegory of Hope. A recasting, hence the loss of image definition.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Arched rectangular on a plain rectangular plinth; cavetto-moulded edging (top and sides) with repeated floriate motif; within mirrored olive leaves, shield (three pallets, on a fess in chief three mullets, an eagle displayed) surmounted by a crown; on each side above the plinth, a bracket formed of a rose within a foliate swirl; on each shoulder, a dolphin.

Notes: A baroque style of fireback; the excrescences on the shield are the result of careless pouring of the iron into the mould.

Description: Rectangular with arched rectangular shaped top joined by cavetto curves; astragal edging; shield, supporters, ducal coronet, motto and garter of the Duke of Dorset: Quarterly, Or and gules, a bend vair.

Notes: Almost certainly the arms of Lionel Sackville KG (1688-1765), created first duke of Dorset in 1720; many different firebacks exist, all with precisely the same armorial stamp.

Inscription: [around shield] HONY SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE / [on motto scroll] AUT NUNQUAM TENTES, AUT PERFICE

Arms: Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset

Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto-moulded edging; central, two handled, gadrooned vase with swirled, fruited vines issuing from the neck, and a bird on each side perched within the vines; out of the neck, a naïve human figure with arms outstretched, grasping vines on each side.

Notes: The figure emerging from the vase has a symbolism which has yet to be explained; more than one version of this fireback exists.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Quasi-arched shape with forward-facing 'wings', which splay outwards towards the base where each has been pierced with a small hole as if to insert a rod from one side to the other; the 'wings' curve to follow the shape of the main panel but curl outwards at the top; central panel with stylised tree decoration surmounted with a crown between two inward-facing animals, possibly a lion and unicorn; beneath the tree, a partially illegible inscription in relief.

Notes: This unusual casting was probably formed in an open box mould. Only a very small number of such castings are known. Depth 200mm. A similar fireback, noted at Poynings in Sussex, was illustrated in The Connoisseur, vol 41 (April 1915), p. 221; it too had a crown supported by a lion and unicorn on the top, and a tree with an illegible inscription below.

Inscription: SYLVESTR..[illegible]

Description: Rectangular panel with moulded edging (top and sides); two joined guilloche arches with bracket ends and floral designs in the spandrels; above, pediment with dentil edging, between teardrop pinnacles; date in bottom centre of pediment; possible initials below and between arches.

Notes: The pattern has been formed from, or in imitation of, the upper part of the back of a joined 'wainscot' chair with an inserted date and possible inserted initials

Inscription: 1661 / [?W] [?H]