Firebacks

Description: Arched rectangle; cavetto moulded edging; Tudor royal shield, Garter and crown, with crowned lion and dragon supporters; motto along bottom; Tudor rose to left of crown, portcullis to right.

Notes: This painted fireback is reputed to have been a gift from King Henry VIII to the second Sir William Godolphin, who was present at the Siege of Boulogne in 1544 with a party of Godolphin tin miners.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: HONI SOIT QVI MAL E PENSE / DIEU ET MON DROIT

Arms: Tudor royal (Elizabeth I)

Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); irregular arrangement of four stamps in three rows: face mask with ?crown and ruff (3), flower head with four petals and leaflets (4), fleur de lys (5), and profile of a head with 'Roman' crest (2); initials replace stamps in top corners.

Notes: A larger variant, undated and with other initials but the same four stamps, is also known.

Inscription: TBI I•A•1•6•1•8 / TA S

Description: Arched rectangular shaped central panel with open-bud edging; pictorial: Venus in her chariot drawn by doves, with her child, Cupid; a heron flies away to the left; above are swagged curtains and a pair of tassels, below is a landscape; arched rectangular shaped border with fillet edging, a scallop shell top centre with symmetrical arrangement of vine and acanthus leaves and tendrils; the monogram, SHR, bottom centre; above is a symmetrical design of scrolled floral tendrils.

Notes: The design is derived from a personification of the planet Venus in 'Planetarum effectus et eorum in signis zodiaci', by Marten de Vos (1585); the flying heron has been copied from a print by Wenceslaus Hollar c.1658. The theft, in 1699, from a Thames-side warehouse of several firebacks, included '6 of Venus in a Chariot with Doves', which is likely to refer to this type (Post Boy 11-14 Nov. 1699).

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: SHR

Description: Quasi-rectangular; twisted rope lengths along top and sides; centre top, quartered shield between two vertical carved stamps of a billet with five oval shapes; the same billet is repeated horizontally below between two irregular twisted rope saltires.

Notes: The arms are probably of Thomas Wriothesley, who was Henry VIII's last Lord Chancellor and created Earl of Southampton in 1547; he married c.1533 so the arms could date to before then, but the same arms are displayed on his enamelled stall plate in St George's Chapel, Windsor, of 1545, and in stained glass in a window in the parish church at South Warnborough, Hampshire. The shield is, quarterly, 1. Wrythe or Wriothesley quartering Dunstanville and Pink, 2. Drayton, 3. Crocker and 4. Peckham. A candidate for the earliest English fireback with an example of personal arms. A similar fireback is no. 1305.

Arms: Wriothesley (Earl of Southampton)

Description: Arched rectangular shaped; ovolo moulded edging (top and sides); central stamp of a carved bracket figure of a bearded man in a loincloth and cap; date and monogram in arch, split by figure, ‘T’ elevated; rhyme in capitals across centre, letters carved on strips, split by figure; date and initials as individual stamps.

Notes: The twin miseries of a smoky house and a scolding wife are mentioned several times in literature. The dress of the figure suggests work as a miner, possibly linking this back with the Forest of Dean. Variants exist without date or initials, or with other dates. A version of this fireback with the date 1660, instead of 1658, was noted at Bellamy's Farm, Longney, Gloucestershire in 1912 (Notes and Queries, 11th ser., 6 (Sep 1912), p.230.).

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: 1658 LTB; ·FROM ·A·-·SMOKY ·LIFE·/ AND·A SCOVL DING·WIFE·/ALL MEN THAT-DOE·ME·SE/ TAKE·PETIE- AND·DELIVER ME

Description: Rectangular with pediment; ovolo moulded edging inside top of pediment and inside top and sides of rectangle; centre top, four-petal rose and crown with fleur de lys below; at either end, stamps made from two parts of a wreath (the middle section missing) enclosing a fleur de lys.

Notes: The wreaths from which the stamps have been disassembled can be seen complete on two other firebacks, and the rose and crown is a common stamp on a large series of early firebacks.

Inscription: ?I T

Description: Rectangular with rebated top corners; ovolo moulded edging (top and sides); topcentre, date above initials.

Notes: The rebated corners are an unusual feature.

Inscription: 1653 / T · L ·C

Description: Arched rectangular shaped central panel with ’nutshell,’ paternost edging on a broad fillet; figure of Neptune/Poseidon holding a trident in his right hand, standing on a pedestal in the centre of a circular fountain, with two hippocampi, water issuing from their mouths; in front, a mermaid swims in waves, her arms raised; behind, blasts of wind issue from clouds; arched rectangular border with fillet edging; symmetrical design of seashells suspended from chains of pearls; bottom centre, the monogram between swirled plant tendrils; on top, symmetrical floral swirls.

Notes: Although very similar in size and design to a fireback in the 1724 series, this is not based on a design by Daniel Marot; instead it may have been inspired by the design for a fountain by Jean Lepautre (1618-82) published in a set of 12 etchings by Jean Le Blond in 1650. Almost certainly the 'iron chimney back' purchased by Henry Campion, of Danny, from John Legas for two guineas in 1731; another example, presumably from the same source, is at The Vine, near Basingstoke, Hampshire.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: SHR

Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); central Tudor shield, garter, crown and supporters (greyhound and lion), formed from separate stamps; date on a single stamp in top left corner.

Notes: The worn appearance of the central arms, compared with the clarity of the date, suggests that this is an early example of a fireback being used as a pattern, with the addition of a subsequent date. The same stamps forming the arms can also be seen on other firebacks. The extension of the lower part of the ‘3’ on the date stamp suggests that the numbers may have been fixed to the backing block, rather than the date being carved as a whole. Another variant of this fireback has the rope edging extending only three-quarters of the way down the sides.

Inscription: 1583

Arms: Tudor royal

Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); from top, crowned Tudor royal shield (stamp overpressed) above crowned shield bearing initials, KH in Lombardic lettering, above a fleur de lys (stamp overpressed); to left, diagonal lion passant guardant sinister; to right, diagonal lion passant; at base, single 'imp' figure, arms to side, moving left but facing right, between two pairs of 'imp' figures (separately stamped), one moving left, right arm raised, the other moving right, right arm raised.

Notes: One of the 'Royal' series.

Arms: Tudor royal arms of England