Firebacks

Manufactured in France

38 results

  1. 761

    va_37.jpg
    910 x 880 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular; astragal edging with simiulated ribbon pattern; inscription on a banner in arch; crowned roundel bearing the arms of France between two angel supporters carrying trumpets; below, a triumph of arms; on the bottom, a plain extension panel.

    Notes: The motto, translated, reads 'Alone against all'; other firebacks bear the motto, 'Victorieux contre tous' (Victorious against all).

    Inscription: SEVL CONTRE TOVS

    Arms: France modern

    Manufactured: in the late 17th century in France.

    Current location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington & Chelsea, Greater London, England.

    Museum number: M.3-1918 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

    Citation: Carpentier, H., 1912, Plaques de Cheminées (Paris & Florange, published by the author).

  2. 765

    va_41.jpg
    815 x 810 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular; fillet edging with darts on the inside; circular arms of France within the chains of the Ordre d'Esprit and the Ordre de St Michel, with crown above, all resting on a framework compartment, with olive leaf sprays on each side ofn the shield.

    Notes: Typical form of the arms of France of the period of Louis XIV.

    Arms: France modern

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

    Current location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington & Chelsea, Greater London, England.

    Museum number: M.1132-1926 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

    Citation: Carpentier, H., 1912, Plaques de Cheminées (Paris & Florange, published by the author).

  3. 766

    va_42.jpg
    525 x 585 mm

    Description: Canted rectangle; ovolo-moulded edging; shield and dolphin crown of the dauphin of France, encircled by the Ordre d'Esprit and the Ordre de St Michel; dolphins in the bottom corners, separating digits of the date.

    Notes: The 24th Dauphin was Louis, son of Louis XV and father of Louis XVI. Part of the bequest to the Victoria and Albert Museum by Lieut. Colonel G. B. Croft-Lyons in 1926.

    Inscription: 1 7 5 0

    Arms: Dauphin of France (24th Dauphin)

    Manufactured: in 1750 in France.

    Current location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington & Chelsea, Greater London, England.

    Museum number: M.625-1926 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

  4. 767

    va_43.jpg
    600 x 650 mm

    Description: Arch shaped; rope edging; top centre, crowned cartouche with initials F S, with spiral wound wire design in between; below, two cartouches, each bearing a 7-pointed star, and each separating the initials HG.

    Notes: The national origin of this fireback is a little uncertain.

    Inscription: F S / H G H G

    Manufactured: in the late 16th century possibly in the Lorraine area of France.

    Current location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington & Chelsea, Greater London, England.

    Museum number: 888.1901 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

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

  5. 987

    westland_ltd 10048 810x875.jpg
    810 x 875 mm

    Description: Upon a moulded base plinth, wide scrolled side double fillets with foliage about the scrolls and suspended bell flowers in chain above; central foliate cartouche behind an oval shield surmounted by a vicomte's coronet, with an abbot's mitre to the left and the scrolled top of an abbot's crozier to the right; on top, an arch rising from horizontal moulding on each side, with a small central cartouche enclosing a plain button and a suspended bell flower.

    Notes: The quartered arms may include those of Leclerc de Lesseville (az. three crescents or), one of whose number was bishop of Coutances 1659-65.

    Arms: ?Leclerc quartering ?

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

    Current location:, not known.

  6. 944

    westland_ltd 10512 800x860.jpg
    800 x 860 mm

    Description: Cavetto-canted arched rectangular shape; double fillet edging on top, pilasters with diagonal striping at sides; double bead and pellet moulding parallel to, and inside fillet, enclosing pictorial representation of Joshua and Caleb carrying an outsize bunch of grapes; below them, at each side, a basket of flowers and fruit, and between them a cartouche with a date; on top, two symmetrical cornucopiae spilling their contents down the canted shoulders of the plate; at bottom, a plain extension panel.

    Notes: The image is derived from a fireback of c.1700, in the series identified by the letters GK, as is the date cartouche. This is a contrived design using elements from another fireback.

    Inscription: [indecipherable poss. 1700]

    Manufactured: in the 19th century in France.

    Current location:, not known.

  7. 992

    westland_ltd 12668 810x800.jpg
    810 x 800 mm

    Description: Ogee-arched rectangular shape, centred by a scroll-edged cartouche enclosing a pair of armorial ovals, the left cast with a crowned lion rampant, the right with a salamander surrounded by flames, all between a pair of greyhound supporters and edged with bellflower-decorated pilasters.

    Notes: The heraldic design depicting the marriage of Paul de Chabannes (1686-1769), comte de Chabannes de Vergers, with Marie-Madeleine Sallonyer on 1st July 1715 (whose shield is a golden salamander bedded in red hot fire on a blue shield).

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Manufactured: in the early 18th century in France.

    Current location:, not known.

    Citation: Palasi, P., 2014, Plaques de Cheminées Héraldiques (Paris, Éditions Gourcuff-Gradenigo).

  8. 789

    whatlington,_hancox 02.jpg
    1370 x 1084 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular on a plain rectangular plinth; cavetto-moulded edging (top and sides) with repeated floriate motif; within mirrored olive leaves, shield (three pallets, on a fess in chief three mullets, an eagle displayed) surmounted by a crown; on each side above the plinth, a bracket formed of a rose within a foliate swirl; on each shoulder, a dolphin.

    Notes: A baroque style of fireback; the excrescences on the shield are the result of careless pouring of the iron into the mould.

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

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