Firebacks

Description: Rectangular; Ionic pilasters at sides, architrave on top; English Stuart royal shield, garter, crown, motto and supporters; date below and either side of garter.

Notes: One of several firebacks, all of the same date, but varying in size, framing style and moulding; all have stylistic features in common and will have been the work of the same pattern maker, who was also responsible for carving royal coats of arms in three West Country churches. A plaster cast of a fireback of this design is displayed as the royal arms in St George's church, near Abergele in north Wales. Copies of this fireback were advertised in Bratt Colbran Ltd.'s (London) catalogue in the early-20th century.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE / 16 18 / DIEV ET MON DROIT

Arms: English Stuart royal (James I)

Description: Arched rectangular central panel with canted top corners and bead-on-fillet edging; pictorial scene of Jesus at the well with the woman of Samaria; arched rectangular border with fillet edging; on top, central scallop shell with a descending dolphin on each side of the arch.

Notes: A scene from the New Testament - John 4. Mitford Collection, Petworth House.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Rectangular; ovolo edging; shield, helm, crest, mantling and motto of the Merchant Taylors’ Company: Argent a Pavilion Imperial Purple garnished Or lined Ermine between two Mantles also Imperial Purple lined Ermine on a chief Azure a Lion passant guardant Or.

Notes: Arms were re-granted to the Company in 1586; the excrescences on the helm and shield are probably the result of splashes caused when pouring the iron into the mould from too great a height. Mitford collection, Petworth House.

Inscription: CONCORDIA PARVAE RES CRESCUNT [In Harmony Small Things Grow]

Arms: Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors

Description: Arched rectangular central panel with bead edging; female figure, a crown above her head, holding two snakes; arched rectangular border with fillet edging; top centre, knot of ribbon with festoons of pomegranates suspended therefrom via a ring on each shoulder of the plate; at the bottom, two crossed palm fronds; on top, symmetrical arrangements of swirled foliage; on each side, a plain rectangular panel with fillet edging.

Notes: Possibly the allegorical figure of Democracy; the form of the palm fronds and the swirled foliage on top suggest a common pattern-maker with the TAN series and the Mayfield 'Dutch' series. Mitford collection, Petworth House.

Description: Rectangular with flanged edging; upper rectangular panel with cyma recta edging; pictorial scene of the Marriage at Cana; lower rectangular panel with fillet edging; three circular medallions with twin, concentric fillet edges, the left one with the bust of male, the right one with the bust of a female and the centre one with a floral design.

Notes: The scene is from the New Testament - John 2. Mitford collection, Petworth House.

Description: Rectangular; ovolo-moulded edging; top centre, stamp formed of a carved domestic scene of a family around a table, between two small mirrored rectangular stamps each of a cow; lower centre, symmetrical arrangement of two jugs, two goblets and two crossed churchwarden pipes, all in low relief.

Notes: The domestic group has been formed from a decorative iron mantelpiece ornament portraying the tale of the goose that laid golden eggs. Having killed the goose, the family are lamenting the loss of their bounty (see Ames, 1980, p.94). The style of the fireback suggests a pastiche using designs suggesting the past. The same mantelpiece group can be seen as decoration on the kitchen spit assemblage at Petworth House, West Sussex, which was cast at Robert Chorley's foundry at Cocking, south of Midhurst. Evidently this and another fireback bearing the same ornament stamp were among items from the Cowdray estate sold in 1898. Mitford collection, Petworth House.

Description: Arched rectangular shape; bead-on-fillet edging; standing figure of a female holding a torch in her right hand, a goat by her feet, and a bush bottom left; arched rectangular border with ovolo-moulded edging; symmetrical arrangement of scrolled foliage; on top, a scallop shell with a descending dolphin on each side of the arch.

Notes: The figure is an allegorical representation of Wisdom. Mitford collection, Petworth House.

Description: Arched rectangular central panel with bead-on-fillet edging; pictorial scene of a seated female holding a small child, with two putti, one on each side of her, the one on her right holding an olive branch, the one on her left holding a flaming heart, his foot aginst a globe; arched rectangular border with fillet edging; top centre, laurel wreath from which descend festoons of flowers and fruit suspended from roses; at the bottom, a cartouche containing the intials between two cornucopiae; on top, a scallop shell between two descending dolphins.

Notes: The group is an allegorical representation of Charity. Mitford collection, Petworth House.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: H S

Description: Arched rectangular central panel with overlapping leaf edging; pictorial scene of Poseidon/Neptune holding a trident in this right hand, and grasping the reins of two hippocampi in his left hand; beneath his feet a scallop shell, and to his lower left a putto blowing a horn; suspended above him an assemblage of shells; stepped-arched rectangular shaped border with scalloped fillet edging; top centre, scallop shell with a descending arrangment of seashells and seaweed; on top, a scallop shell between two putti and below them, two dolphins.

Notes: An uncharacteristically elaborate version of the usual 'Dutch' style of fireback, suggesting a later date, or possibly a pastiche. Mitford collection, Petworth House.

Description: Arched rectangular central panel with bead edging; pictorial scene of Venus, naked and kneeling, and Adonis, standing, holding a spear in his left hand, with Cupid to the left, and a hound and a quiver of arrows below to the right; arched rectangular border with fillet edging; at top of arch, grape bunches; at each side, a festoon of fruit suspended on a ribbon from a lion's head; at the bottom, an oval cartouche between flowers; on top, an urn from which descends a dolphin on each side of the arch.

Notes: The scene is based on the painting (c.1635) of Venus and Adonis by Peter Paul Rubens; the same central panel is known with several different borders. Mitford collection, Petworth House.

Copies of this fireback are known.