Firebacks

Manufactured in England

887 results

  1. 1003

    horsham,_11 causeway.jpg
    1540 x 1480 mm

    Description: Large plain arched rectangular fireback with astragal edging on the top and sides.

    Notes: Exceptionally large fireback, finely cast.

    Manufactured: in the late-18th to early-19th century in England.

    Current location: in private hands, Horsham, West Sussex, England.

  2. 327

    horsham_museum 05.jpg
    560 x 810 mm

    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). Two editions of engravings of de Vos's drawings are known, by Jan Sadeler, dated 1585, and by Gregor Fentzel in about 1650. 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

    Manufactured: in the late-17th century in England.

    Current location: Horsham Museum, Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex, England.

    (part of the Horsham Museum museum group)

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

  3. 328

    horsham_museum 06.jpg
    450 x 700 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular central panel with bead edging; pictorial scene of a figure in Roman dress, holding a large sword, and holding the head of a bearded man in his left hand; below to the left, a naked, decapitated body; above the winged face of a putto between mirrored, scrolled foliage; arched rectangular border with fillet edging; flowers in chain under the arch and down the sides; at the bottom, swirled foliage; on top, a crown between fruit triads.

    Notes: Perseus holding the severed head of the Medusa; possibly loosely adapted from a drawing by Crispijn de Passe the elder (1564-1637). Similarities in the design and execution of the pattern suggest a common source with contemporary English firebacks.

    Manufactured: in the early-18th century in England.

    Current location: Horsham Museum, Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex, England.

    (part of the Horsham Museum museum group)

  4. 329

    horsham_museum 07.jpg
    731 x 483 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; simulated twisted rope edging (top & sides); central, symmetrical arrangement of a fleur-de-lys between two diamond stamps with two small cross-cut squares below, and a triad of dots outside; above, a haphazard arrangement of date, at top, above the initials, with a rose and crown to the left, and another fleur to the right.

    Notes: Almost certainly an altered copy of a similar fireback dated 1613, some of the features of which have remained.

    Inscription: 1637 / ILE

    Manufactured: in 1637 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Horsham Museum, Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex, England.

    (part of the Horsham Museum museum group)

  5. 330

    horsham_museum 08.jpg
    920 x 610 mm

    Description: Rectangular; plain edge; top centre, ring between repeated lion's head between repeated narrow human figure with folded arms standing on a bracket; below each figure, a small bracket.

    Notes: The figures are indistinct and are disproportionately small for the size of the firebacks; from Isfield Place 1921.

    Manufactured: in the late-19th to early-20th century in England.

    Current location: Horsham Museum, Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex, England.

    (part of the Horsham Museum museum group)

  6. 331

    horsham_museum 09.jpg
    1052 x 588 mm

    Description: Rectangular; no edging; inscription evenly spaced along top, sans serif lettering.

    Inscription: IS D T IS

    Manufactured: in the late-19th to early-20th century in England.

    Current location: Horsham Museum, Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex, England.

    (part of the Horsham Museum museum group)

  7. 332

    horsham_museum 10.jpg
    1075 x 764 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto moulded edging; top centre within arch, initials above date.

    Notes: Plain elegant fireback from a late series, probably cast in the south east of England. The crack emanating from the top right corner of the fireback seems to be a weakness on all the recorded examples, and may have caused by thinness of the base board at that point.

    Inscription: TW / 1852

    Manufactured: in 1852 in England.

    Current location: Horsham Museum, Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex, England.

    (part of the Horsham Museum museum group)

  8. 333

    horsham_museum 11.jpg
    875 x 620 mm

    Description: Rectangular with triangular extension at middle of top edge; rope edging (top and sides); inscription in triangle - O larger than I; a pair of vertical, parallel ratchet bars (180mm long) below each top corner.

    Inscription: O I

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

    Current location: Horsham Museum, Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex, England.

    (part of the Horsham Museum museum group)

  9. 325

    horsham_museum_01a.jpg
    620 x 897 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shaped central panel with bead-and-pellet edging on a broad fillet; Jupiter in his chariot drawn by eagles; above are clouds, below is a landscape; arched rectangular shaped border with fillet edging, with a symmetrical scrolled wire design; the monogram, SHR, bottom centre; above is a symmetrical design of scrolled floral tendrils.

    Notes: The design is probably adapted from a personification of the planet, Jupiter, in 'Planetarum effectus et eorum in signis zodiaci', by Marten de Vos (1585). Two editions of engravings of de Vos's drawings are known, by Jan Sadeler, dated 1585, and by Gregor Fentzel in about 1650.

    Inscription: SHR

    Manufactured: in the late-17th to early-18th century in England.

    Current location: Horsham Museum, Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex, England.

    (part of the Horsham Museum museum group)

  10. 951

    horsted_keynes, broadhurst 02.jpg
    1105 x 720 mm

    Description: Rectangular; central shield; fleur-de-lys stamp repeated three times across top and once on each side level with shield, all regularly spaced.

    Notes: It is likely that the arms relate to the marriage, in 1541, of Christopher Sackville (c.1519-1559), son of John Sackville of Chiddingly, Sussex, and Constance Colepeper, daughter of Thomas Colepeper of Bedgebury, Kent, one of whose ancestors was the heiress, Elizabeth Hardreshull. The blazon: Sackville - quarterly or and gules, a bend vair; Colepeper - argent a bend engrailed gules; Hardreshull - argent a chevron sable between nine martlets gules, six and three. Christopher Sackville's brother, Sir Richard, owned Horsted Keynes furnace, which may have been where this fireback was cast. A candidate for the earliest English fireback with an example of personal arms.

    Arms: Sackville impaling Colepeper and Hardreshall

    Manufactured: in the mid-16th century possibly at Horsted Keynes Furnace in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Horsted Keynes, West Sussex, England.