Firebacks

Description: Arched rectangular shape; ovolo moulded edging; date in arch; below arch two parallel, vertical straps, each with a buckle at the top; initials left and right of centre; rectangular stamp with bird, four times across top; larger rectangular stamp with unidentified animal, twice below initials.

Notes: The buckles suggest a connection with the Pelham family; the initials may relate to Sir Thomas Pelham, Bt. (1597-1654) who owned and operated ironworks at Waldron in Sussex. This is one of a few examples of a copy of a casting of the original pattern to which additional stamps had been added. Formerly part of the Ade Collection (from Grove Hill, Hellingly, Sussex).

Inscription: 1642 / T P

Description: Rectangular with cavetto moulded edging; English Royal supporters (crowned lion and unicorn) standing upon a cartouche, upon which rests a blank motto scroll; above, an anchor, surrounded by a looped cable is encircled by the Garter ribbon, which is surmounted by a royal coronet; the numbers ‘61’, presumably part of the date, are to the right of the unicorn, and a letter, ‘D’, is placed between the unicorn and the coronet.

Notes: From another casting of the same back, the date is known to be 1661. The cabled anchor is the badge of the Lord High Admiral who, in 1661, was the Duke of York and Albany, later James II. The missing initial is an ‘I’, for Jacobus Dux. The absence of the motto may be explained by the pattern being a carved armorial panel where the motto text, unlike that of the Garter, was merely painted.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: [I] D / 16 61

Arms: Lord High Admiral of England

Description: Arched rectangular central panel with canted, cavetto-canted shoulders and bead edging on a broad fillet; seated female figure in a chariot drawn by dogs, symmetrical hanging drapery above right; same-shaped border with fillet edging at top, and suspended ribbons with floral bunches; at base, symmetrical palm leaves tied with ribbon; symmetrical serpents on top their tails intertwined.

Notes: The design is derived from a personification of America, one of a set of playing cards entitled Jeu de la Géographie, designed by Stefano della Bella (1677). The pattern for this fireback, from which the protuberances above the serpents’ heads is missing, is in Rottingdean Grange (no. 930). The pattern, however, has a base panel of a chain-link design, which is missing from this casting.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Rectangular with plait-effect border and a column of beads down each side; pictorial scene of a male figure in gown and full-bottom wig, holding a fool’s cap in his right hand, standing behind a seated male figure, bald and bearded, with the papal triple crown falling off his head; he is seated at a desk on which are two books; behind him and to the right, three books are on a small shelf. Above the figures, a longer shelf, the width of the plate, supports other books and papers, together with the figure of a dog, from whose mouth a scroll issues bearing an unreadable inscription. On top, two putti hold hands in front of a flaming grenade.

Notes: The design is copied from a cartoon of c.1672 showing Titus Oates, the instigator of the Popish Plot, presenting a fool’s cap to the Pope.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Rectangular; cyma recta moulded edging formed of short lengths probably derived from furniture; top left, initials arranged in triad; top right, date; top centre, rose-and-crown between two small fleurs de lys, with two concentric rope-patterned roundels outside, above two small roses; four roses evenly spaced across lower middle, with a fleur between each outer pair, and another rose below the date.

Notes: One of a series of firebacks cast between the 1670s and 1690s bearing small, simple stamps, initials and dates; the style of rose and crown is similar to that used in gun founding in the Tudor period, suggesting that the furnace that was the source of this fireback may have been used for that purpose.

Inscription: HEM [triad] 1685

Description: Rectangular; edging formed from furniture moulding; shield of Ayloffe impaling Sulyard impressed weakly seven times (2-3-2), with the same shield impressed eight times (3-2-3), more deeply, in the spaces between the first shields.

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. A large number of variants use the same shields. Several copies are known of this fireback, but in precisely the same arrangement, all poorly cast, unlike the variants without the additional shields, which are found in many different arrangements, some with dates and initials. From an illustration in the catalogue of an exhibition on heraldry at Burlington House, London, in 1894, it then being at Manor Farm, Edenbridge, Kent.

Copies of this fireback are known.

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

Description: Arched rectangular shaped with fillet and cavetto dentil moulding, and paternost bead edging inside; a lion rampant

Notes: Whole pattern. An unusually tall fireback in relation to its width.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Quasi-arched rectangular shape with swirled and draped foliage across the top; fillet edging with bottom panel containing indistinct floral scrolls; figure of Plenty/Abundance holding a bunch of fruit, accompanied on her left by a cherub, and receiving a further bunch of fruit from a faun to her right; two cherubs hold foliage aloft.

Notes: The figure of Plenty is one of the representations in the Iconologia, published in the early 17th century by Cesare Ripa, and subsequently in other editions. They frequently form the subject of firebacks.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Arched rectangular shape with symmetrical scrolled ‘portico’ above, a flower vase between and circular discs at each end, symmetrical horizontal palm fronds below; pilaster with spiral design and Ionic capital on each side; central pictorial scene of a bagpiper with Elizabethan ruff and soft cap with feather in front of a vaulted ruin, on the right a flaming cauldron on a plinth.

Notes: This seems to be pastiche using various elements derived from other firebacks, notably the moulding and scrolled top are from the Lenard fireback , and the palm fronds are from elsewhere. The figure may be adapted from a painting of a bagpiper by Abraham Bloemaert (1564-1651)

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Rectangular with pediment raised on inverted consoles; ovolo, egg and dart edging; shield, garter, helm, mantling, crest and motto of the English House of Stuart; date split either side of garter buckle.

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.

Copies of this fireback are known.

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

Arms: English Stuart royal (James I)