Firebacks

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

Inscription: IS D T IS

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

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

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

Description: Canted rectangular shape; twisted rope edging (top and sides); cavetto-moulded-edged rectangle top centre, enclosing date between initials CT; five shields of Ayloffe impaling Sulyard in two rows (3-2); 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. The smallest dated example in this series.

Inscription: C.1.6.0.9.T

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

Description: Quasi-rectangular; twisted rope lengths along top and sides; centre top, unidentified 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. A candidate for the earliest English fireback with an example of personal arms. A similar fireback at Warnham Court, Sussex, was illustrated by J. Starkie Gardner in Country Life in 1907.

Arms: Wriothesley (Earl of Southampton)

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: Rectangular with a central rectangular extension; twisted rope edging; fleur-de-lys stamp with twisted band repeated three times at top; ?rose stamp repeated five times in line below fleurs, some over pressed, central rose above others; cabled anchor stamp repeated twice, either side of central rose; initials below central rose; ?cow and dog stamps each repeated twice alternately in line below initials; eight rivets from later repair.

Notes: None of the stamps is known from any other fireback; cabled anchor may suggest a connection with a seaport.

Inscription: HI

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