Firebacks

Manufactured in England

887 results

  1. 1305

    william_smith_auctions,_plainfield_nh,_lot_424_610x451.jpg
    610 x 451 mm

    Description: Quasi-rectangular with canted top corners; twisted rope edging (top and sides); centre top, quartered shield between two vertical carved stamps of a billet with five oval shapes.

    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. The shield is, quarterly, 1. Wrythe or Wriothesley quartering Dunstanville and Pink, 2. Drayton, 3. Crocker and 4. Peckham. A candidate for the earliest English fireback with an example of personal arms. It is possible that this casting is the one formerly at Warnham Court, Sussex, which was illustrated by J. Starkie Gardner in Country Life in 1907. A similar fireback is no. 334. William Smith Auctions, Plainfield, NH, 20 Nov 2024, lot 424 ($250).

    Arms: Wriothesley (Earl of Southampton)

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

    Current location: not known.

    Citation: Gardner, J. S., 25 May 1907, 'Old Wealden Ironwork at Warnham Court', Country Life, pp. 730-2.

  2. 794

    winchelsea,_wickham manor 05.jpg
    680 x 704 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; probable ovolo-moulded edging; Stuart royal arms of England (quarterly, 1st and 4th, France and England, 2nd Scotland and 3rd Ireland) with garter, crown, crest, motto and supporters.

    Notes: A poor recasting, obscuring most of the detail.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: [illegible]

    Arms: English Stuart royal

    Manufactured: in the 17th century in England.

    Current location: Wickham Manor Farm, Winchelsea, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: NT/WMF/M/031 (part of the National Trust museum group)

  3. 827

    winchester,_westgate.jpg
    555 x 730 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular central panel with bead-and-pellet edging on a broad fillet; pictorial scene of a figure in a chariot drawn by birds, above a ground, and with clouds over; arched rectangular border with fillet edging; alternating acanthus leaves with symmetrical curled lines, monogram centre bottom; on top, two mirrored sea serpents; extension panels to each side.

    Notes: The figure is that of Jupiter, holding a bolt of lightning, who is sometimes portrayed in a chariot drawn by eagles; width without extension panels - 477mm.

    Inscription: [?]WH

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

    Current location: Westgate, Winchester, Hampshire, England.

    Museum number: WINCM:LH 5705 (part of the Winchester Museums museum group)

  4. 588

    winchester_museum store 01.jpg
    905 x 740 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape with semi-circular protrusions at the sides; cavetto-moulded edging; a pheon (a downward-pointing arrow head barbed on the inner edge) within a wreath, an earl’s coronet above; the date on either side of the coronet; the initials on left and right sides; a fleur de lys in each bottom corner.

    Notes: The detail of the wreath differs from that on the 1626 plate.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 16 30 / R L

    Manufactured: in 1630 possibly at Robertsbridge Furnace, Salehurst in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Winchester Museums Store, Unit F2, Bar End Industrial Estate, Winchester, Hampshire, Winchester, Hampshire, England.

    Museum number: WINCM:LH 5704 (part of the Winchester Museums museum group)

  5. 795

    winchester_museum store 03.jpg
    757 x 600 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto-moulded edging; English royal Stuart shield, garter, crown, supporters and motto; initials split by crown.

    Notes: The arches of the crown are not typically English in form, suggesting a possibly continental pattern-maker.

    Inscription: C R / HONI SOIT QVI MAL ...PEN...

    Arms: English Stuart royal

    Manufactured: in the 17th century possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Winchester Museums Store, Unit F2, Bar End Industrial Estate, Winchester, Hampshire, Winchester, Hampshire, England.

    Museum number: WINCM:LH 3737 (part of the Winchester Museums museum group)

  6. 1092

    wintertons,_lichfield,_18_oct_2021_lot_1551_660x860.jpg
    660 x 860 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular central panel with bead edging; caped naked male figure standing on clouds, head turned over his right shoulder and holding a coronet of five raised baubles aloft in his right hand, on his left hand a bird perched, its wings displayed; above left a cloud; arched rectangular fillet border containing symmetrical, regularly-spaced 'daisy' flowers and festoons of leaves descending there from; on top of the arch, a central cartouche with a mirrored eagle and scrolls on each side.

    Notes: The bottom panel of the border is missing, perhaps through breakage, the bottom flower on each side being incomplete and the fillet edging discontinued. The figure, which has yet to be identified, is probably iconic or mythological. The form of the arch suggests an English origin.

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

    Current location: not known.

  7. 962

    wisborough_green, harsfold farmhouse.jpg
    1010 x 795 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; ovolo moulded edging; Tudor royal shield, garter, crown, motto and supporters (crowned lion and dragon); plain panels at sides and bottom.

    Notes: A common variant has a rose and portcullis either side of the crown, and the top of the lion's crown and the dragon's ear do not overlap the edging; without the extension panels, the approximate dimensions of the main plate are 805mm wide by 590 high. The quality of the relief indicates that this composite fireback was created using an early casting of the armorial back.

    Inscription: [Garter] HONI SOIT QVI MAL E PENSE / [motto] DIEV ET MON DROIT

    Arms: Tudor royal

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

    Current location: in private hands, Wisborough Green, West Sussex, England.

  8. 797

    wisborough_green, idehurst.jpg
    1247 x 653 mm

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); three impressions of an ornate firedog, each incorporating lion’s legs, above it a pedestal with a lion’s head, surmounted by a caryatid, a shield shaped cartouche over its lower trunk, and with a floral vase headdress. The dog impressions are not evenly stamped, the middle one lying to the right.

    Notes: The firedogs are much more elaborate than those customarily used as stamps on firebacks and indicate a later date; they probably included brass elements and were possibly French.

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

    Current location: in private hands, Wisborough Green, West Sussex, England.

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

  9. 801

    withyham,_dorset arms.jpg
    1211 x 668 mm

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); irregular arrangement of four stamps in three rows: face mask with ruff (7), flower head with four petals and leaflets (4), fleur-de-lys (7), and profile of head with ‘Roman’ crest (2); initials replace stamps top left and centre.

    Notes: A smaller, dated variant is at Godolphin House, Helston.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: AT nS

    Manufactured: in the early-17th century in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: The Dorset Arms, Withyham, East Sussex, England.

    Citation: Lloyd, N., 1925, 'Domestic Ironwork I', Architectural Review, 58, pp. 58-67.

  10. 1061

    withyham,_rectory cottage.jpg
    801 x 685 mm

    Description: Triple-facetted arched rectangular shape; ovolo-moulded edging (top and sides); bottom centre, a vertical distaff or spindle repeated twice; to each side a fillet-edged oval containing the initials S and W; above, either side of the distaffs, two more ovals perpendicular to the first two, with the date split between them; above each distaff, an oval rotated as at the bottom, the initials I T split between them; at the base, a blank rectangular panel.

    Notes: An unusual shaped fireback. It was recorded by J. Starkie Gardner in one of his scrapbooks (Victoria and Albert Museum, Archive of Art and Design (AAD/2014/8)), marked '[?]Warris Westerham Kent'; subsequently it was at Skipreed, Chiddingstone Hoath, Kent.

    Inscription: I T / 16 63 / S W

    Manufactured: in 1663 possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: not known.

    Citation: Town, E. & McShane, A., 2020, Marking Time: Objects, People and their Lives 1500-1800 (New Haven, Yale Center for British Art), p. 213.