Firebacks

Manufactured in the Weald area

522 results

  1. 690

    smallhythe_place.jpg
    1280 x 470 mm

    Description: Canted rectangle; plain edges; broad horizontal fillet dividing the plate in two just above the side angles, with vertical fillets to top corners enclosing date and initials.

    Notes: Uncharacteristically crude for the period.

    Inscription: IS / 16 60

    Manufactured: in 1660 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Smallhythe Place, Small Hythe Road, Tenterden, Kent, England.

    Museum number: 1117951 (part of the National Trust museum group)

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

  2. 903

    speldhurst,_george and dragon a.jpg
    1300 x 690 mm

    Description: Rectangular; ovolo-moulded edging (top and sides); date between split initials across upper half of plate; two notches cut away for insertion of firedogs.

    Notes: The ‘6s’ appear to have been moulded from a type of jemmy.

    Inscription: g 1669 P [reversed]

    Manufactured: in 1669 possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: George & Dragon Inn, Speldhurst Hill, Speldhurst, Kent, England.

  3. 829

    swanborough_manor 03.jpg
    663 x 470 mm

    Description: Rectangular; ovolo-moulded edging (top and sides); repeated guilloche pattern inside top and side edges; upper centre, lozenge stamp with ovolo edges and recessed daisy flower in centre, between buckle stamp repeated twice; the lozenge stamp is repeated over-stamping the lower part of the first.

    Notes: The lozenge stamp is a design also seen on domestic interior panelling; the buckles suggest a Pelham family association; the buckle and lozenge are separate stamps, and in each example their relative positions differ slightly; the guilloche design appears to have been carved on the base panel; an example at The Star Inn, Alfriston, Sussex measures 665mm x 480mm.

    Manufactured: in the early to mid 17th century in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Iford, East Sussex, England.

  4. 830

    swanborough_manor 04.jpg
    1017 x 600 mm

    Description: Rectangular; stepped fillet moulded edging (top and sides); small fleur-de-lys stamp repeated five times, three centred across the top, two centred across the middle.

    Notes: The fleur-de-lys stamp appears to have been constructed using wire.

    Manufactured: in the mid to late 16th century in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Iford, East Sussex, England.

  5. 470

    taddington_manor 02c.jpg
    1085 x 585 mm

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); central Tudor royal shield with encircling garter (motto reversed), separate greyhound and lion supporters, separate crown; rectangular bordered stamp with an animal facing to the right, repeated once above and on each side of the armorial; bold fleur-de-lys stamp repeated once on each side of the armorial below the other stamp; all irregularly positioned.

    Notes: The armorial and fleurs-de-lys are seen together on a plate at Alfriston Clergy House.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Arms: Tudor royal (prob. Henry VIII)

    Manufactured: in the early to mid 16th century possibly at Pounsley Furnace, Framfield in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: not known.

    Citation: Lloyd, N., 1925, 'Domestic Ironwork I', Architectural Review, 58, pp. 58-67.

  6. 699

    taddington_manor.jpg
    1490 x 840 mm

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging on top and sides; cavetto-moulded-edged rectangle top centre, enclosing date between initials; 16 shields of Ayloffe impaling Sulyard in three rows (5-6-5); Ayloffe: sable, a lion rampant Or, collared gules, between three crosses formy of the second; Sulyard: argent, a chevron gules between three pheons inverted sable.

    Notes: William Ayloffe (c1535-1584) of Hornchurch, Essex, Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench, married (c1560) Jane, dau. of Sir Eustace Sulyard, of Runwell, Essex. The initials 'CT' are likely to be those of Charles Tyler, a founder whose working life and that of his family have strong parallels with the occurrence of these firebacks. An identical fireback is in a house at Cowden, Kent, and a broken example is at Wool House, a National Trust property at Loose also in Kent; small variations in the alignment of the shields are apparent.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: C.1.6.0.1.T

    Arms: Ayloffe impaling Sulyard (William Ayloffe of Bretons, Hornchurch)

    Manufactured: in 1601 possibly at Bedgebury Furnace, Goudhurst in the Weald area of England.

    Current location:, not known.

    Citation: Cowper, H. S., 1911, 'A Series of Kentish Heraldic Firebacks and the Identification of the Arms', Archaeologia Cantiana, 29, pp. 40-6.

    Citation: Hodgkinson, J. S., 2018, 'A series of Kentish firebacks and the possible identification of their founder', Archaeologia Cantiana, 139, pp. 312-15.

  7. 51

    taunton,_london fine ltd.jpg
    890 x 680 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shaped, topped with a triangle; twisted rope edging (top and sides only); inverted Tudor royal shield and Garter, crown above, greyhound and lion supporters (see example at Alfriston Clergy House). Two horizontal planklines.

    Notes: A uniquely shaped fireback, the inverted shield and Garter indicate that they formed a separate stamp from the crown; other firebacks with these stamps have the shield and Garter the correct way round. A frequently copied fireback; a larger version has a bottom extension.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: HONE SOVT QUEY MAL Y PENSE

    Arms: Tudor royal (prob.Henry VIII)

    Manufactured: in the early to mid 16th century possibly at Pounsley Furnace, Framfield in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Courtlands, Taunton, Somerset, England.

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

  8. 1089

    ticehurst,_authentic reclamation 02.jpg
    850 x 505 mm

    Description: Canted quasi-rectangular shape with no edging; straight length of ?dowel placed parallel to top and to each side; square stamp with fillet edge and four diagonally quartered squares repeated five times, three rotated with sides 45 degrees to the vertical in top corners and slightly left of lower centre, and two, unrotated, repeated twice in bottom corners.

    Notes: The square stamps may be pastry moulds.

    Manufactured: in the mid to late 16th century in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Authentic Reclamation, Lymden Lane, Ticehurst, East Sussex, England.

  9. 1090

    ticehurst,_authentic reclamation 03.jpg
    >440 x >630 mm

    Description: Fragment; probably originally arched rectangular shape with twisted rope edging (only the arch and a section below surviving); below arch, band of repeated short stamps with undulating vine decoration, randomly impressed so that the undulations do not join consistently; above the band, line of ?crowned cross stamps repeated five times; above them, the date (the 3 uncertain) between two vertically-aligned stamps formed of a double figure-of-eight between opposed concave curves; above, a rose stamp between two vertical rectangular stamps of indeterminate design, with a ?crowned rose stamp above; below the band, a line of alternate rose and ?crowned cross stamps, three of each; below, a ?crowned cross stamp and a rectangular stamp.

    Notes: Most of the stamps have been seen on a small group of firebacks of the 1590s concentrated in the western Weald.

    Inscription: 1593[?]

    Manufactured: in 1593 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Ticehurst, East Sussex, England.

  10. 1103

    ticehurst,_authentic reclamation 06.jpg
    755 x 455 mm

    Description: Rectangular shape; double astragal edging (top and sides); arrangement of repeated square stamps with indented saltires: three down each side, five in a diamond pattern top centre.

    Notes: The lines around the edge may well have been formed from impressing a straight edge of some sort.

    Manufactured: in the mid to late 16th century in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Authentic Reclamation, Lymden Lane, Ticehurst, East Sussex, England.