Firebacks

Description: Central panel, cavetto-canted rectangle with arch; bud and annulet edging (in alternate threes); pictorial panel portraying Europa being carried to sea by Zeus, disguised as a bull; two female attendants wave from the right shore; two putti attend, one below with a bow and arrow; trees to right and left; clouds and sun above. Same shaped, fillet-edged border with floral scrolls top and sides; at the bottom, a cartouche bearing EB monogram between oak leaf and acorn fronds; on top, central scallop shell between floral scrolls with dolphin’s heads.

Notes: The central design is closely based on an illustration by Bernard Salomon, first published in a 1557 edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses and copied in subsequent editions by Virgil Solis (1514-62). The initials, EB, are likely to be those of the pattern maker. The similarity between the execution of this picture and those on firebacks bearing the SHR monogram suggests the possibility of a common source. Ten rivets are the result of later repair.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: EB

Description: Arched rectangular shaped central panel with ’nutshell,’ paternost edging on a broad fillet; figure of Neptune/Poseidon holding a trident in his right hand, standing on a pedestal in the centre of a circular fountain, with two hippocampi, water issuing from their mouths; in front, a mermaid swims in waves, her arms raised; behind, blasts of wind issue from clouds; arched rectangular border with fillet edging; symmetrical design of seashells suspended from chains of pearls; bottom centre, the monogram between swirled plant tendrils; on top, symmetrical floral swirls.

Notes: Although very similar in size and design to a fireback in the 1724 series, this is not based on a design by Daniel Marot; instead it may have been inspired by the design for a fountain by Jean Lepautre (1618-82) published in a set of 12 etchings by Jean Le Blond in 1650. Almost certainly the 'iron chimney back' purchased by Henry Campion, of Danny, from John Legas for two guineas in 1731; another example, presumably from the same source, is at The Vine, near Basingstoke, Hampshire.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: SHR