Firebacks

Manufactured in England

887 results

  1. 502

    newick_park 03.jpg
    600 x >435 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; embattled cavetto-moulded edging; shield, garter, supporters and crown of James I of England; a branch sprouting a rose and leaf to the left of the crown, a branch sprouting a thistle and leaf to the right; initials at top, split by crown; date below shield.

    Notes: Similar in style to the 1619 series, this plate has larger rose and thistle plant stamps and was probably designed by the same pattern-maker

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: I R / 16 21

    Arms: English Stuart royal - James I

    Manufactured: in 1621 in England.

    Current location: Newick Park Hotel, Newick, East Sussex, England.

  2. 501

    newick_park_01a.jpg
    >700 x 645 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; ovolo-moulded edging; central crest of a gryphon's head couped, its wings displayed; above, the initials, the 'S' above the 'P's; below, the date.

    Notes: The crest is likely to be that of Peter Short of Lindfield, Sussex, who married Philadelphia Burrell in 1704.

    Inscription: PSP / 1730

    Arms: Short of Lindfield

    Manufactured: in 1730 possibly in the Weald area of England.

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

  3. 504

    northchapel,_brookside house.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 to be those 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: in private hands, Northchapel, West Sussex, England.

  4. 1222

    northiam,_great_dixter_1170x770.jpg
    1170 x 770 mm

    Description: Rectangular shape; no edging; symmetrical arrangement of four stamps: across the top, three crowned roses with a fleur-de-lys between each pair; across the middle, three fleurs-de-lys with a chained portcullis between each pair; below and in the spaces between the fleurs and portcullises, four letters W.

    Notes: The letter W may have an apotropaic significance; the stamps have not been recorded on other firebacks.

    Inscription: W W W W

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

    Current location: Great Dixter, Northiam, East Sussex, England.

    Citation: Easton, T. & Hodgkinson, J. S., 2013, 'Apotropaic Symbols on Cast-Iron Firebacks', Jnl. of the Antique Metalware Soc., 21, pp. 14-33.

  5. 1144

    norton,_norton manor a.jpg
    1000 x 670 mm

    Description: Composite; arched rectangular shaped, armorial fireback, cavetto edging, with Stuart Royal arms, garter, supporters, crown and motto, and 1662 date above crown; this overlies a rectangular plate with fillet edging; top centre in the space each side of the central shield, an initial letter - A to left, B to right - each above a fleur-de-lys, its stem terminating in a small buckle.

    Notes: Several firebacks have incorporated the same Stuart royal shield, which probably originally dated to 1619, but with the date altered. A similar fireback, but without the initials and fleurs-de-lys, dated 1661, and reputed to have come from the Totsey, the old guildhall at the market cross in Gloucester, is illustrated in Ames, 1980, 23; possibly the same fireback was reported by the late David Bick to be at The Grange, Minsterworth, Gloucestershire (demolished in the late 1960s).

    Inscription: 16 62 / [Garter motto (illeg.)] / A B

    Arms: English Stuart royal

    Manufactured: in 1662 possibly in the Forest of Dean area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Norton, Wiltshire, England.

    Citation: Ames, A., 1980, Collecting Cast Iron (Ashbourne, Moorland Publishing).

    Citation: Badeni, J., 22 Sep 1983, 'Whose Fireback?' [letter], Country Life, 174, 4492, p. 772.

  6. 505

    ockley,_yew tree cottage.jpg
    940 x 600 mm

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); inscription (‘S’ reversed) across upper middle of plate, with superscripted central ‘I’ (crossed) ; below each part of the date is a twisted rope saltire (145mm lengths).

    Notes: A personal fireback, made to order; a similar commission by Giles Moore, Rector of Horsted Keynes, Sussex, in 1657, cost 13 shillings.

    Inscription: I / 16 E S 63

    Manufactured: in 1663 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Ockley, Surrey, England.

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

  7. 1086

    outwood,_old hall.jpg
    >440 x 455 mm

    Description: Fragment; rectangular shape; ovolo-moulded edging; image of an iron grate with barred front and integral andiron with iron or brass disc.

    Notes: A unique example; it is not certain how the mould was formed, whether by impressing an actual grate or carving a pattern with the image of a grate; the former seems more likely.

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

    Current location: in private hands, Outwood, Surrey, England.

  8. 1141

    ozleworth,_newark park.jpg
    740 x 730 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; twisted rope edging (top and sides); date stamp, 1634, in arch; initials, EH, separated by a cross, below date.

    Notes: The same date stamp has been noted on another fireback; the cross between the initials may have an apotropaic purpose.

    Inscription: 1634 /E + H

    Manufactured: in 1634 in England.

    Current location: Newark Park, Ozleworth, Gloucestershire, England.

    (part of the National Trust museum group)

  9. 1068

    panxworth,_norfolk reclamation 01a.jpg
    430 x 490 mm

    Description: Arched shape with forward-facing 'wings', which splay outwards towards the base, curved to follow the shape of the main panel; central panel with stylised tree decoration surmounted with a scallop shell between six 'leaves' (one damaged).

    Notes: This small, but unusual, casting was probably cast in an open box mould as the upcast (reverse) side of the casting shows evidence of being sand-treated. Only a very small number of such castings are known. Depth 200mm.

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

    Current location: not known.

  10. 1161

    panxworth,_norfolk_reclamation_02.jpg
    750 x 1030 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular central panel with bead-and-pellet edging (top and sides); on a ground between two plants, their flowers upstanding, a gadrooned flower vase with two, scrolled handles, tulips and other flowers issuing from the narrow neck; arched rectangular border with fillet edging; mirrored descending flower swags; along a rectangular bottom panel with fillet edging a symmetrical arrangement of swirled foliage; on top, two mirrored sea serpents; at the sides, a narrow vertical extension bordered with a fillet and with bead infill; at the base, a plain extension panel.

    Notes: The presence of tulips suggest a Dutch origin for the pattern of this fireback, although the presence of several examples in England suggest that it was produced there rather than on the Continent. One of several very similar designs, varied by the forms of the vases, the style of the flowers and by their dimensions.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

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

    Current location: not known.