Firebacks

Manufactured in the Weald area

522 results

  1. 242

    chailey,_woodbrooks farm 02.jpg
    675 x 625 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shaped; astragal edging; shield bearing a saltire, beneath a baron’s coronet; date and initials split by shield.

    Notes: The shield, coronet and initials may be those of George Nevill, 12th Baron Bergavenny (1665-95); the Neville arms has a rose in the centre but if the shield were a painted carving, the rose may have been painted and not carved.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 16 72 / G B

    Arms: George Nevill, 12th baron Bergavenny

    Manufactured: in 1672 possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Fulham, London, England.

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

  2. 244

    chailey,_woodbrooks farm 04.jpg
    900 x 600 mm

    Description: Canted rectangle; twisted rope edging (top and sides); stamp of three ostrich feathers within a coronet, between the two parts of the date, with lion and unicorn supporters outside date.

    Notes: The ostrich feathers are the badge of the Prince of Wales. There is no known significance of the year 1629 with that title, the birth of the prince (later Charles II) being in the following year. The date was probably added to a recasting of the plate. The lack of detail in the modelling indicates this has been recast several times.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 16 29

    Manufactured: in 1629 in the Weald area of England.

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

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

  3. 1034

    chailey,_woodbrooks farm 05.jpg
    815 x 495 mm

    Description: Canted rectangular shape; twisted rope edging in short lengths (top and sides); shield stamp with rebated edges repeated five times (two and three).

    Notes: The arms are those of Courthope of Whiligh in Ticehurst; blazon: argent, a fess azure between three estoiles sable (two and one). Shown are molets of six points which have straight rays instead of (properly) estoiles which have wavy ones. However, the 1643/4 iron graveslab of David Barham of Snape, in Wadhurst church, has the same arms (also with molets instead of estoiles), which were those of his mother who was a Courthope.

    Arms: Courthope, of Whiligh in Ticehurst

    Manufactured: in the late 16th to early 17th century in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Fulham, London, England.

    Citation: Fitzgerald-Uniacke, R. G., 1914, 'The Barhams of Shoesmiths in Wadhurst', Sussex Archaeological Collections, 56, pp. 110-160.

  4. 1255

    chard,_stuart_bull_antiques_a.jpg
    813 x 570 mm

    Description: Rectangular with two-stepped top; twisted rope edging (top and sides), reused frame moulding at bottom; top centre, stamp formed of a talbot statant guardant upon a wreath between separated date; initials formed of straight twisted rope lengths separated between lower shoulders; a cross below the crest.

    Notes: Straight elements in the letters and numbers are formed of short lengths of twisted rope; curved elements appear to have been formed by hand drawing in the casting sand; the talbot crest has been seen on other firebacks indicating a common source, and is associated with firebacks with a stepped shape. Chard Auctions, 16 Mar 2023, lot 206 (£85, with two other firebacks).

    Inscription: 16 33 / W + M

    Manufactured: in 1633 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location:, not known.

  5. 245

    charlton_mackrell, lytes cary.jpg
    470 x 490 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shaped with narrow shoulders; fillet edging; date in individual numerals across arch.

    Notes: A larger version is different in the spacing of the numerals and the proportions of the plate. For another casting of this fireback see J. Every Collection catalogue #20 (Sussex Archaeological Society library, Barbican House, Lewes, Sussex).

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 1658

    Manufactured: in 1658 possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Lytes Cary Manor, Charleton Mackrell, Somerset, England.

    Museum number: 254606 (part of the National Trust museum group)

  6. 247

    chawton_house 01.jpg
    1185 x 870 mm

    Description: A modified recasting of a variant of the ‘Armada’ fireback, with initials changed to IK, a single anchor panel, and the addition of a plain base and borders, the latter each with a twisted rope saltire, upper middle.

    Notes: It is likely that an original four-panel fireback has been used to recast a copy with additional side and base panels; the saltires may have apotropaic significance. A second fireback at the house cast in the 19th century is identical but for being 1% smaller all round, and has a full-width extension on top bearing four symmetrical rope saltires, the outer two larger than the inner two. The first example was used to make the second.

    Inscription: 1588 / IK

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

    Current location: Chawton House, Chawton, Hampshire, England.

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

  7. 34

    chawton_house 02.jpg
    710 x 915 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; astragal and fillet edging (top and sides) with overlapping leaf pattern; floral cartouche with lion’s face at top, enclosing a shield bearing the arms of May (Gules, a fess between eight billets Or) quartering Broadnax (Or, two chevrons gules, on a chief of the last three cinquefoils Argent); at base a plain cuboid plinth.

    Notes: Thomas Broadnax (1701-81), son of William Broadnax of Godmersham, Kent, and Anne May, heiress of Christopher May, inherited the estate of his cousin, Sir Thomas May, adopting his surname in 1727. He later changed his name to Knight on inheriting the estate of that family at Chawton in 1738.

    Arms: May quartering Broadnax

    Manufactured: in the early 18th century possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Chawton House, Chawton, Hampshire, England.

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

  8. 255

    chiddingfold,_ramster 03.jpg
    770 x 535 mm

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); along upper half of plate, date split with initials in between.

    Notes: The initials are likely of William Yalden (d.1674), an ironmaster who was active in north-west Sussex and south-west Surrey where this and other similar firebacks have been noted.

    Inscription: 16 WY 68

    Manufactured: in 1668 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Ramster, Chiddingfold, Surrey, England.

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

  9. 260

    chiddingstone,_pilbeams.jpg
    1060 x 760 mm

    Description: Quasi-arched rectangular shape, with 5-facetted arch; cyma recta moulded edge; oval Tudor royal shield on a cartouche surrounded by a garter, a crown above separating the initials, ER, all on a larger cartouche; on either side a circular Tudor royal shield within a garter, with a crown above each.

    Notes: The word ‘PENSE’ in the garter mottoes is differently spelled on the central stamp — ‘PENCE’ - and the outer stamps — ‘PANSE’ (where the ‘N’ is reversed). The outer stamp has been noted on three firebacks dated 1589. Three horizontal planklines on central cartouche.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: ER [and Garter mottoes]

    Arms: Tudor royal

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

    Current location: in private hands, Chiddingstone, Kent, England.

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

    Citation: Schubert, H. R., 1950, 'A Rare Group of Wealden Firebacks', Journal of the Iron & Steel Institute, 165, pp. 39-40.

  10. 1201

    chiddingstone,_spokeshave.png
    890 x 620 mm

    Description: Rectangular with five-facetted arched shape; twisted rope edging (top and sides); small flower-bud stamp repeated 23 times inside the edging; across the middle of the fireback, two approximately parallel lines of lengths of vine strip moulding inclined up to the right; between them, five bird stamps, probably swans (a Lancastrian badge), the front of their left wings 'displayed and inverted', and three more swans above the top line of vine strip moulding.

    Notes: The stamps are all seen on other firebacks in the same series. The five-facetted arch is seemingly unique. A very similar fireback with minor differences was lot 2630 at Toovey's auction, Washington, West Sussex, 19 Jun 2015.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

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

    Current location: in private hands, Chiddingstone, Kent, England.