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768
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 with twisted rope edging top and side; a short length of turned dowel stamped four times, diagonally, on each panel.
Notes: The supporters are those of Henry VII or Henry VIII, but the initials suggest the fireback dates from the reign of Edward VI (1547-53). John Harvo (d. c1565) was a gunfounder who has been identified as occupying Pounsley furnace, Framfield, Sussex, possibly from as early as 1547; the fireback may have been cast originally during the reign of Henry VIII (1509-47), with the initials added to an early casting using the original pattern. The disparity between the worn surface of the armorial panel and the greater clarity of the extensions indicates that the extended casting was made using an already well-used armorial fireback and therefore at a substantially later date.
Copies of this fireback are known.
Inscription: E R / HONY SOIT QVE MAL Y PAYNCE / Made in Sussex by John Harvo / DV ET MOVN DROI
Arms: Tudor royal - Probably Henry VIII
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular with round arch (shape)
- rope (edging)
- carved stamps
- whole carved pattern
- individual letters
- extension panels
- armorial
- royal
- text
- objects
Manufactured: in the late-16th century in England.
Current location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington & Chelsea, Greater London, England.
Museum number: 685.1899 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)
- Attached to series:
- Pounsley series
- John Harvo series
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769
Description: Rectangular; cavetto-moulded edge; a snake rises from a fire and bites the middle finger of the hand of a sleeved left arm that descends from a top right corner cloud; left and right, ‘S’ scrolls appear strapped to the edge of the fireback; the date, top left of centre; initials, bottom right corner.
Notes: An illustration of the New Testament episode (Acts 28: 3) when St Paul, shipwrecked in the island of Malta, was putting sticks on a fire and a viper bit him. The distinctive shape of the ‘1’ in the date and the initials, ‘IM’, together with the ‘S’ scrolls, parallel such features in other firebacks. The design is an adaptation of an illustration in 'Devises Heroiques' by Claudius Paradin (1557) which was translated into English by Geoffrey Whitney as 'The Book of Emblemes' (1586).
Copies of this fireback are known.
Inscription: 1649 / IM
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular (shape)
- cavetto (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- biblical
- text
- animals
- humans
Manufactured: in 1649 possibly at Brede Furnace in the Weald area of England.
Current location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington & Chelsea, Greater London, England.
Museum number: M.119-1984 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)
Citation: Hamling, T., 2010, Decorating the 'Godly' Household (New Haven, Yale), pp. 251-2.
- Attached to series:
- IM series
- Hooked '1' series
- New Testament firebacks
- Brede group
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771
Description: Rectangular with triangular pediment; stepped fillet and ogee moulded edge; initials in rectangular panel (F reversed); date in pediment.
Notes: The triangular top is a separate element, in this instance impressed before the lower panel. A variant at Hastings Museum (no. 118) has the letters positioned slightly differently.
Inscription: 1586 / FM
- Decoration tags:
- triangular arched (shape)
- stepped fillet and ogee (edging)
- individual letters
- date stamp
- text
Manufactured: in 1586 in the Weald area of England.
Current location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington & Chelsea, Greater London, England.
Museum number: M.129-1913 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)
- Attached to series:
- 1586 series
- Date & initials firebacks
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772
Description: Cavetto canted arched rectangle; astragal edging; oval inscription surrounding a central battlemented shield bearing an open book, with a baronet's escutcheon above; above, a helm with a crest of an arm and hand holding a wreath; on each side, a druid supporter holding a harp, each upon a horizontal fillet; below, intertwined bell flowers behind a tripartite motto scroll.
Notes: The motto appears to have been incorrectly spelled; the Conroy baronetcy was created for Sir John Conroy, comptroller of the household of the Duchess of Kent, and much hated by her daughter, Princess (later Queen) Victoria; the 3rd (and last) baronet succeeded to the title in 1869.
Inscription: FIDELITER ET CONSTANTER [Faithfully and constantly] / L'ANTIQIVITE NE PEVX PAS L'ABOLIR [Antiquity cannot abolish it]
Arms: Conroy, baronet, of Llanbrynmair (Sir John Conroy, 3rd baronet, 1845-1900)
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular with canted top corners and round arch (shape)
- astragal (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- armorial
- text
- humans
Manufactured: in the late-19th century in England.
Current location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington & Chelsea, Greater London, England.
Museum number: 502.1896 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)
- Attached to series:
- Personal armorial firebacks
- Welsh armorial firebacks
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774
Description: Arched shape with bead edging; from top, large bead with four pairs of small beads in a cross shape, text with pellet surrounded by eight beads on each side of 'G', and at bottom.
Notes: Made by, and bearing the initials of Eric Gill and his wife, Mary, in 1930.
Inscription: E&M / G / MCM / XXX
- Decoration tags:
- rounded arched (shape)
- bead (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- text
Manufactured: in 1930 at Loosley Row Foundry possibly in the Chilterns area of England.
Current location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington & Chelsea, Greater London, England.
Museum number: M.4-1983 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)
- Attached to series:
- Personal firebacks
- Date & initials firebacks
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775
Description: Arched rectangle; ovol-moulded edging; pictorial scene of a begowned figure waving to figures standing beneath a portico with a sun behind, other figures opening a door to his left, above which is the shape of the man in the moon; blottom left, a computer; bottom right, a painter's palette.
Notes: A farewell gift to William Vaughan, Reader in Art History at University College, London (later professor of the History of Art at Birkbeck College).
Inscription: WILLIAM VAUGHAN / 1972 UNIVERSITY 1986 / COLLEGE
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular with round arch (shape)
- ovolo (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- pictorial
- architectural
- text
- humans
Manufactured: in 1987 in England.
Current location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington & Chelsea, Greater London, England.
Museum number: M.15-1994 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)
- Attached to series:
- Personal firebacks
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1067
Description: Fragment; rectangular shape; ovolo-moulded edging (top and sides); six stamps, in two columns of three, taking the form of a long-pointed arrow head within a circlet of small curls.
Notes: The stamps are of an unfamiliar type with some similarity to the heraldic symbol for ermine. Because only the left part of the fireback has survived it is not known how many original columns of this stamp there were.
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular (shape)
- ovolo (edging)
- carved stamps
- heraldic
Manufactured: in the 16th century possibly in the Weald area of England.
Current location: Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington and Chelsea, London, England.
Museum number: M.148-1915 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)
- Attached to series:
- Miscellaneous stamp firebacks
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1063
Description: Composite of three elements; central panel has a complex ‘knot’ pattern with a fillet edge; side panel, repeated on either side of the central panel, contains a vase of flowers, possibly stylised thistles, within an arched frame and fillet edge; arched panel above, also with fillet edge, contains the date and inscription; the spandrels of the side panels, and the arched top panel, contain a series of circular motifs comprising concentric rings deepening towards the centre.
Notes: ‘Knot’ patterns were popular in gardens of the period. The garden theme is continued with the side panels. An example of the same design, noted at Linchmere, West Sussex, is a different casting, the top panel with the date and initials being slightly askew. From a photograph in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; photographed at Mapesbury House, Willesden in 1904.
Copies of this fireback are known.
Inscription: 1598 / IM IB
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular with round arch (shape)
- astragal (edging)
- carved pattern panels
- text
- plants
- objects
Manufactured: in 1598 in the Weald area of England.
Current location: not known.
Museum number: E.4376-2000 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)
- Attached to series:
- Armada series
- Garden design types
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895
Description: Quasi-arched rectangular shape, semi-circular protrusions on top corners; cavetto-moulded edging looped at top; two mirrored scrolls inside arch; a phoenix in flames, its wings displayed and inverted; date, in two parts, in top corners; initials in bottom right corner.
Notes: A variant (no. 590) lacks the date and the initials.
Copies of this fireback are known.
Inscription: 16 50 / IM
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular with round arch (shape)
- cavetto (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- pictorial
- mythological
- text
- animals
Manufactured: in 1650 possibly at Brede Furnace in the Weald area of England.
Current location: not known.
- Attached to series:
- Hooked '1' series
- IM series
- Loop edged firebacks
- Brede group
- Phoenix firebacks
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1276
Description: Rectangular shape; twisted rope edging (top and sides only); along the top, two irregular arrangements of rope lengths forming a small quasi-square within a larger quasi-square, with the outer corners of the small square joined to the inner corners of the larger square, a short length of rope extending outwards from the top and bottom right corners of the larger square, and within the left small square a rope saltire, and in the right small square a rope cross; between and outside of these rope arrangements, an arched rectangular stamp, with indented edges, of a crowned rose-en-soleil impressed three times; below each rope pattern a fleur-de-lys; below each rose-en-soleil stamp, a circular, six-pointed-star-embossed stamp with beaded edging.
Notes: All of the stamps have been noted on a series of other firebacks together with variations of the rope arrangement. The clarity of the condition of the stamps suggests that this casting predates the others in the series.
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular (shape)
- rope (edging)
- simple stamps
- carved stamps
- heraldic
- royal
- objects
Manufactured: in the mid- to late-16th century possibly at Pounsley Furnace, Framfield in the Weald area of England.
Current location: in private hands, Wadhurst, East Sussex, England.
- Attached to series:
- Pounsley series
- Rose-en-soleil series
- Food mould stamp firebacks