Firebacks

350mm tall

  1. 218

    brighton_museum 10.jpg
    910 x 350 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Rectangular; cyma recta moulded edging formed of short lengths probably derived from furniture; top left, initials arranged in triad; top right, date; top centre, rose-and-crown between two small fleurs de lys, with two concentric rope-patterned roundels outside, above two small roses; four roses evenly spaced across lower middle, with a fleur between each outer pair, and another rose below the date.

    Notes: One of a series of firebacks cast between the 1670s and 1690s bearing small, simple stamps, initials and dates; the style of rose and crown is similar to that used in gun founding in the Tudor period, suggesting that the furnace that was the source of this fireback may have been used for that purpose.

    Inscription: HEM [triad] 1685

    Manufactured: in 1685 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Brighton, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: R3341/2 (part of the Brighton Museum museum group)

    Citation: Gardner, J. S., 1898, 'Iron Casting in the Weald', Archaeologia, 56, 1, pp. 133-164.

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

    Citation: Lindsay, J. S., 1927, Iron & Brass Implements of the English House (London, The Medici Society).

  2. 165

    hastings_048.jpg
    350 x 350 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Rectangular with low, 3-facetted arch; ovolo edging; shield of the Goldsmiths’ Company: quarterly Gules and Azure, in the first and fourth quarters a Leopard's Head affrontée Or, in the second and third quarters a Covered Cup between in chief two Buckles fesswise all of the last; behind the shield is a scrolled escutcheon.

    Notes: An unusually thick fireback. The Goldsmiths’ Company were granted arms in 1571.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Arms: Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths

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

    Current location: Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, John's Place, Bohemia Road, Hastings, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: HASMG: 1978.15 (part of the Hastings Museum museum group)

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

  3. 546

    pet-m-101.jpg
    403 x 350 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Rectangular; ovolo edging; shield, helm, crest, mantling and motto of the Merchant Taylors’ Company: Argent a Pavilion Imperial Purple garnished Or lined Ermine between two Mantles also Imperial Purple lined Ermine on a chief Azure a Lion passant guardant Or.

    Notes: Arms were re-granted to the Company in 1586; the excrescences on the helm and shield are probably the result of splashes caused when pouring the iron into the mould from too great a height.

    Inscription: CONCORDIA PARVAE RES CRESCUNT [In Harmony Small Things Grow]

    Arms: Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors

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

    Current location: Petworth House, Petworth, West Sussex, England.

    Museum number: NT/PET/M/101 (part of the National Trust museum group)

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