Firebacks

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: 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

Description: Rectangular; cavetto-moulded edging; English royal Stuart shield, garter, crown, supporters and motto.

Notes: One of many designs of the Stuart royal arms on firebacks. A recasting, hence the illegible motto. Sold at Christie's Masters and Makers auction, 30 November 2010, lot 517 (£1,875).

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE / DIEV ET MON DROIT

Arms: English Stuart royal

Description: Rectangular; cavetto-moulded edging; armorial of France modern in front of a cartouche; above, an English royal crown between two small lion masks; two lion rampant supporters.

Notes: Believed to be associated with the marriage, in 1625, of Charles I with Princess Henrietta Maria of France, the juxtaposition of the arms of France with an English crown is seen on several firebacks, normally with a distinctive ornate edging; on this fireback is the unusual addition of two lion supporters, which are heraldically incorrect.

Arms: France modern

Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto-moulded edging; central, two handled, fluted vase with swirled, fruited vines issuing from the neck, and a bird on each side perched within the vines; out of the neck, a naïve human figure with arms outstretched, grasping vines on each side.

Notes: The figure emerging from the vase has a symbolism which has yet to be explained.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto edging; three ostrich feathers issuing from a royal coronet; a blank motto banner below; the initials bottom left, above banner.

Notes: The badge of the Prince of Wales; perhaps cast during the Commonwealth period.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: IL

Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto moulding all round; spreading oak tree, with leaves and acorns, filling the whole plate; three royal crowns, one at the top of the tree, the other two symmetrically on the ends of branches towards the top corners; initials CR towards the bottom corners, the remaining inscription on a scroll across the base.

Notes: The design is derived from the celebrated occasion when Charles II evaded his pursuers by hiding in an oak tree at Boscobel House, near Wolverhampton, following the final Royalist defeat at the battle of Worcester in 1651. This popular fireback has been copied frequently.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: C THE ROYALL OAK R

Description: Arched rectangular central panel with bead edging; an inverted, cabled anchor surmounted by a crown, flanked by one initial each side; arched rectangular border with cavetto-moulded edging; top centre, face of a putto with flowing leaf arrangement descending each side.

Notes: An English pastiche of the ‘Dutch’ style of fireback, which became popular in the second half of the seventeenth century. One of a small series of firebacks with similar proportions and detail. Much copied.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: C R

Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto edging; armorial; Stuart English royal arms within a circular garter; crown, motto and supporters (crowned lion and unicorn); initials separated by crown.

Notes: An early casting of a widely copied fireback. A later copy with an inserted, probably spurious, date is no. 1303.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: C R / HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE / DIEU ET MON DROIT

Arms: English Stuart royal

Description: Canted rectangle; cavetto-moulded edging; single horizontal ?rope strip below canted corners and vertical ?rope strip parallel to each side, dividing the fireback into two side panels, two top corner panels, top panel and main central panel; top corner panels, a plant stamp repeated in each; top panel, date between repeated plant stamp; side panels, fleur-de-lys stamp repeated twice on each side in a vertical arrangement, a single plant stamp below, above one initial on each side; central panel plain.

Notes: The 'daisy' stamp, fleurs de lys and the IB initials are identical to those on similar firebacks dated between 1703 and 1721, and probably indicating the same founder. Illustration from Shuffrey 1912, p.139.

Inscription: 1710 / I B