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977
Description: Arched rectangular shape; ovolo moulded edging; Tudor royal shield, garter, crown, motto and supporters (crowned lion and dragon), temp. Elizabeth I; initials in space on either side of top of garter; the top of the lion's crown and the dragon's ear overlap the edging.
Notes: The initials have been added to an early recasting; another version 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.
Copies of this fireback are known.
Inscription: I G / [Garter] HONI SOIT QVI MAL E PENSE / [motto] DIEV ET MON DROIT
Arms: Tudor royal
- Decoration tags:
- arched rectangular (shape)
- ovolo (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- individual letters
- planklines
- armorial
- royal
- text
Manufactured: in the mid to late 16th century possibly in the Weald area of England.
Current location: Hign Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England.
- Attached to series:
- Tudor royal armorial firebacks
- Tudor royal armorial (plain) series
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716
Description: Cavetto canted rectangular central panel with ovolo-moulded edging, enclosing a pictorial scene of a naked female seated at a fountain on the left, with two clothed males to her right; behind, a part of a domed brick building with the inscription around the top of the wall; enclosing the scene, twin floral festoons suspended from top centre; on top, a central crown between two descending dolphins.
Notes: The scene depicts the Apocryphal story of Susanna and the Elders.
Copies of this fireback are known.
Inscription: SVSANA
- Decoration tags:
- 'Dutch' (shape)
- ovolo (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- pictorial
- biblical
- architectural
- humans
Manufactured: in the late 17th to early 18th century in Germany.
Current location:.
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1157
Description: Arched rectangular shape; ovolo-moulded edging; a shield with the arms of the Grocers' Company on a cartouche, surrounded by four sprays of olive leaves.
Notes: The blazon of the arms is: Argent, a chevron gules between nine cloves six in chief and three in base proper. The arms were granted in 1532. The style of the fireback owes something to the design of French firebacks of the mid-17th century.
Copies of this fireback are known.
Arms: Worshipful Company of Grocers
- Decoration tags:
- arched rectangular (shape)
- ovolo (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- heraldic
- armorial
- plants
Manufactured: in the mid 17th century in England.
Current location:.
- Attached to series:
- Livery company firebacks
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901
Description: Quasi-Arched rectangular shape with cyma reversa shoulders; ovolo edging; stylised lion passant guardant; crowned rose with leaf and stem on left, crowned fleur de lys on right, thistle with leaves above centre; three right-facing scrolls at base; down-facing scroll, with staple, on right side; date split between bottom corners; initials below date, bottom right.
Notes: Blatantly Royalist in its symbolism, a variant is dated (perhaps less convincingly) 1649. Numeral style, initials, leaf depiction and the stapled scroll are typical features of firebacks made from patterns by the same maker. A later version of the same subject, but with a different shaped plate and without the fleur-de-lys, is also known (see 'Royalist series'). M. A. Lower writes of this design of fireback being cast at Waldron Furnace in Sussex (Lower, 1849, p.219).
Copies of this fireback are known.
Inscription: 16 41 / IM
- Decoration tags:
- quasi-arched rectangular (shape)
- ovolo (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- heraldic
- royal
- text
- animals
Manufactured: in 1641 possibly at Brede furnace in the Weald area of England.
Current location: in private hands, Wandsworth, London, England.
- Attached to series:
- IM series
- Hooked '1' series
- Stapled scroll series
- Brede group
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737
Description: Armorial within complex ovolo moulded edging on all sides; two plank lines; the achievement is distinguished by the elaborately festooned mantling, the whole resting on a boat-shaped compartment.
Notes: The arms, which are those of an esquire, may be those of John Trevor, the son of Sir John Trevor, one of Charles II’s Secretaries of State. He married Elizabeth, widow of William Morley, of Glynde, Sussex, from whom passed the Glynde estates. The arms on this fireback have been variously attributed to Lord Dacre (a descendant of John Trevor), and Col. Marcus Trevor, 1st Viscount Dungannon. The distinctive shape is seen in similar form on several other armorial firebacks, suggesting a continuity of pattern making, if not the same pattern maker. Many copies of this fireback exist.
Copies of this fireback are known.
Arms: Trevor family, of Glynde
- Decoration tags:
- complex quasi-arched rectangular (shape)
- ovolo (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- planklines
- armorial
Manufactured: in the mid to late 17th century in the Weald area of England.
Current location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington & Chelsea, Greater London, England.
Museum number: 142.1892 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)
Citation: Gardner, J. S., 1898, 'Iron Casting in the Weald', Archaeologia, 56, 1, pp. 133-164.
- Attached to series:
- Ornate border series
- Personal armorial firebacks
- Welsh armorial firebacks
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743
Description: Arched rectangular shape; ovolo moulded edging; Tudor royal shield, garter, crown, motto and supporters (crowned lion and dragon), temp. Elizabeth I; the top of the lion's crown and the dragon's ear overlap the edging.
Notes: Another version 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; a faint blank rectangular stamp on each side of the crown may have been to hide initials, which have been noted on a variant of this fireback.
Copies of this fireback are known.
Inscription: [Garter] HONI SOIT QVI MAL E PENSE / [motto] DIEV ET MON DROIT
Arms: Tudor royal
- Decoration tags:
- arched rectangular (shape)
- ovolo (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- planklines
- armorial
- royal
- text
Manufactured: in the mid to late 16th century possibly in the Weald area of England.
Current location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington & Chelsea, Greater London, England.
Museum number: 794.1896 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)
- Attached to series:
- Tudor royal armorial firebacks
- Tudor royal armorial (plain) series
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763
Description: Quasi-Arched rectangular shape with cyma reversa shoulders; ovolo edging; stylised lion passant guardant; crowned rose with leaf and stem on left, crowned fleur de lys on right, thistle with leaves above centre; three right-facing scrolls at base; down-facing scroll, with staple, on right side; date split between bottom corners; initials below date, bottom right.
Notes: Blatantly Royalist in its symbolism, a variant is dated (perhaps more convincingly) 1641. Numeral style, initials, leaf depiction and the stapled scroll are typical features of firebacks made from patterns by the same maker. A later version of the same subject, but with a different shaped plate and without the fleur-de-lys, is also known (see 'Royalist series'). M. A. Lower writes of firebacks of this design of being cast at Waldron Furnace in Sussex (Lower, 1849, p.219).
Copies of this fireback are known.
Inscription: 16 49 / IM
- Decoration tags:
- quasi-arched rectangular (shape)
- ovolo (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- heraldic
- royal
- text
- animals
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: 492.1901 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)
Citation: Lloyd, N., 1925, 'Domestic Ironwork I', Architectural Review, 58, pp. 58-67.
- Attached to series:
- IM series
- Hooked '1' series
- Stapled scroll series
- Brede group
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766
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.
Inscription: 1 7 5 0
Arms: Dauphin of France (24th Dauphin)
- Decoration tags:
- canted rectangular (shape)
- ovolo (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- armorial
- royal
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)
- Attached to series:
- Foreign armorial 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:
- arched rectangular (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
? x ? mmImage subject to copyrightDescription: 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