Firebacks

Description: Arched rectangular central panel with additional arch above; bead and fillet edging; pictorial scene of, on the left, a tree next to a female and, in the centre, a male figure, both in eastern dress, a page behind holding a train, and to the right a short obelisk surmounted by a crescent, behind which is the head of a figure with a camel; behind is a small building also surmounted by a crescent, with clouds above; the word, ASIA, is centre bottom; identical shaped border with cavetto-moulded edging; a pomegranate on top with descending swags of drapery; at the sides, overlapping bunches of foliage suspended from ribbon bows; at the bottom, a central cartouche between fruit bunches; on top, a pomegranate with a descending serpent on each side, and a pomegranate on each shoulder of the plate.

Notes: A pastiche of the EUROPA design based on an engraving c.1642 of Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg, and his wife, Luise Henriette of Oranje-Nassau, by Mathias Czwiczek, with the figures adopting very similar poses in an oriental setting; one of a series depicting allegories of the four continents.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: ASIA / MB

Description: Canted rectangle; double fillet edging (top and sides); top centre, date between two flower heads; initials in triad, repeated on each side, with two fleurs-de-lys between; flower head below each initial group; small stamp of the figure of a stag below the date.

Notes: The initials are likely to be those of a husband (P) and wife (M) whose surname begins N. Illustration from Lenygon, p. 245.

Inscription: 1689 / PNM PNM [both triads]

Description: Arched rectangular shape; fillet edging (top and sides); twisted rope cross in centre of arch; fillet-edged square below arch containing initials of uneven size; along the top, a line of five quatrefoils on each side of the initials; below, two symmetrically carved roundels and associated spandrels, each with a central flower.

Notes: The quatrefoils and roundels are likely to have been part of a redundant, probably medieval, furniture panel, perhaps from a chest. The life-size rubbing, reinforced with ink, is by W. R. Lethaby. The fireback was formerly property of the artist John Callcott Horsley RA (1817-1903) at Wilsley Green, Cranbrook, Kent.

Inscription: PC

Description: Arched shape with ovolo-moulded edging; central shield with the English royal Tudor arms and an inescutcheon of a lion rampant, surrounded by a Garter with an incorrect inscription, the shield surmounted by a crown and supported on the dexter side by a dragon and on the sinister side by a greyhound; to the left of the crown, a crowned rose and the the right, a crowned portcullis; above the supporters the date 1614 is split by the shield; below, split by the Garter buckle, initials GB.

Notes: The arms are of Henry VII or Henry VIII, the inescutcheon probably representing a marriage to an heiress, but are anachronistic as the date was in the reign of James I (and VI). The initials GB are believed to relate to Gilles or Georges Boniver, who worked at the foundry at Theux, near Liège, and whose initials appear on several firebacks. The fireback is thought to be a 19th-century copy.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: 16 14 / HONI SOIT IL QVIMAL I PANSE / G B

Arms: English royal Tudor with an inescutcheon of a lion rampant

Description: Upon a rectangular base plinth with an inscribed rectangle, to each side, a wide foliate scroll; central cartouche behind an oval shield bearing three fleurs-de-lys over a horizontally textured ground, supported on each side by a draped male figure, the whole surmounted by a French royal crown; on top, an arch rising from horizontal moulding on each side.

Notes: Characteristic of designs illustrated by architects such as Daniel Marot; the texturing on the shield indicates the azure tincture.

Arms: French royal

Description: Rectangular; rope edging on top and sides; central inscription panel; repeated trailing vine decoration from impressed wooden strips — one horizontal line at top, three vertical strips at each side, one horizontal strip below panel, plain panel at base.

Notes: A series of firebacks all bearing the inscription carved onto a panel and included with other stamps in the casting of the iron graveslab covering the tomb of Anne Forster (Foster) in St George’s church, Crowhurst, Surrey. Formerly in the John H. Every Collection, for which it was purchased in 1921 at Isfield Place, Sussex.

Inscription: HER : LIETH : ANE : FORST/ R : DAVGHTER : AND : / HEYR : TO : THOMAS : / GAYNSFORD : ESQVIER / DECEASED : XVIII : OF: / IANVARI : 1591 : LEAVYNG / BEHIND : HER II : SONES : / AND : V : DAVGHTERS

Description: Fragment; left side only; twisted rope edging to left, canted moulded batten above; left hand print with dividers to its right.

Notes: An unusual combination of edging. The dividers may refer to the occupation of the person for whom this fireback was cast. Formerly in the collection of Dr C. L. Prince of Crowborough, Sussex.

Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); top row, two square-within-a-square arrangements of twisted rope between three stamps formed of Gothic tracery cresting; 2nd row, two more tracery cresting stamps (the one on the right over stamping a fleur-de-lys) between two crowned, star-embossed butter mould stamps with a crowned rose-en-soleil stamp in the middle; 3rd row, three star-embossed butter mould stamps with two pairs of fleurs-de-lys between them; bottom row, seven fleurs-de-lys; plus interspersed short rope lengths, and a vertical, double zig-zag arrangement of rope lengths on each side.

Notes: The rose-en-soleil was the badge of King Edward IV and, thus, a Yorkist symbol. Many of the stamps employed on this fireback are seen, with other stamps, on a wide variety of firebacks, suggesting a common source; similar gothic tracery stamps can be seen as pierced cresting on a rare late-Medieval, wooden Easter sepulchre at the redundant church of St Michael at Cowthorpe, North Yorkshire. Another fireback with an almost identical arrangement of the same stamps has also been noted (no. 713).

Description: Rectangular with canted top corners; twisted rope edging all round except on bottom; three impressions of two circular wafering irons: the central one with invected edge, a heart surmounted by a cross beneath which scroll-work is arranged symmetrically, inscription around edge; the two outer stamps comprise a central motif of four hearts arranged in a cross shape, their points facing the centre, within two concentric bands decorated with lace-like patterns. Above each of the two outer stamps is a simple four-pointed cross shape formed from short lengths of twisted rope.

Notes: The use of wafering irons or butter prints as stamps in casting firebacks is infrequent. Formerly part of the J. H. Every collection.

Inscription: ...N:YOU:NOT: REIVE:MY:HERT:IS:YOURES / [?]1562

Description: Rectangular, edged with twisted leather lengths on top and sides; a ballock dagger with hollow-ground cruciform blade, point down, impressed vertically three times and evenly spaced across the width of the back; between each, two short lengths of twisted leather, arranged in a cross; at either end, the same short lengths of dowel arranged in an inverted ‘V’.

Notes: The dagger (length approx. 38cm) dates from c1575-1625. The probable use of twisted leather is seen occasionally on other firebacks. The grouping of three daggers may also have apotropaic significance in relation to the Trinity.