Firebacks

Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); two irregularly spaced crosses formed of short, thick twisted lengths of rope.

Notes: The crosses may have been formed by twisting thinner rope around a short length of dowel, and are likely to have Christian significance.

Description: Rectangular; ovolo-moulded edging (top and sides); date (in two parts) split across upper part of plate.

Notes: A recasting

Inscription: 17 25

Description: Canted rectangle; twisted rope edging (top and sides); top centre, initials in triad between split date.

Notes: A late date for a very simple design.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: 17 T M M 48

Description: Rectangular; astragal edging; leopard passant guardant sinister canted, facing a leopard passant, with a crowned shield between bearing the initials, KH, above a fleur-de-lys.

Notes: One of the Royal series with uncommonly few stamps.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: KH

Description: Arched rectangular shape with rounded corners; ovolo within fillet moulding all round; oval Tudor royal shield with garter surrounding, topped with a royal crown; dragon and greyhound supporters; initials split by crown; inscription on a fillet between legs of supporters, behind garter finial; motto on an Ionic plinth at bottom; two rectangular side panels, each with a bird stamp (probably a swan, a Lancastrian badge) above a vine strip stamp repeated three times vertically.

Notes: One of two known variants of the John Harvo fireback incorporating extension panels with vine strips and 'swans'; the positions of the swans vary slightly between the two variants.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: E R [+ Garter, Harvo and royal mottoes, all illegible]

Arms: Tudor royal - prob. Edward VI

Description: Rectangular with pediment arch; ovolo-moulded edging; central shield, mantling and crest: per pale, on a chevron between three heads erased, as many mullets; crest: a hind’s head erased.

Notes: No secure identification of the arms. The blazon may be: Per pale on a chevron between three ?gryphons’ heads erased, three mullets (the tinctures are not known). The crest appears to be a hind's head erased. Sold at Christie's Masters and Makers auction, 30 November 2010, lot 531 (£688).

Copies of this fireback are known.

Arms: Not known

Description: Rectangular; ovolo moulded edging (top and sides); at top, date split by initials (with dot between).

Notes: A bold, elegant plate with characters in high relief. The character set is known to have been used for another fireback cast at Heathfield Furnace, Sussex. Sold at Christie's Masters and Makers auction, 30 November 2010, lot 521 (£1000 part with no. 601, no. 637 and no. 634).

Inscription: 17 I·P 54

Description: Rectangular; cavetto edging all round; seated lion on right, its tail rising above its back and its head turned to face the viewer; a seated sheep on the left; date split across top.

Notes: Intended to represent the saying, ‘The lion shall lie down with the lamb’, a popular misquotation of Isaiah 11: 6.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: 1679

Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); twisted rope length stamped eight times in a mirrored double rhombus pattern with a central cross; a crude human figurine stamped irregularly four times, two on each side of the rope design.

Notes: An uncharacteristically small fireback for its likely period.

Description: Arched rectangular shape with small rhomboidal flanges in the corners of the arch; cavetto moulded edge on all sides, with a rose stamp on each curved enlargement of the moulding in the top corners; Stuart royal arms (1605-88, 1702-14) with lion and unicorn supporters, garter, crown and motto.

Notes: A recasting. A casting of the same fireback is in the collection of the Sussex Archaeological Society, but with the addition of a person's name impressed from the broken handle of a skillet (no. 405).

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: [Garter and royal mottoes]

Arms: English Stuart royal