Firebacks

420mm tall

  1. 845

    christies_24-05-01 458mm x 420mm.jpg
    458 x 420 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Canted rectangle; ovolo-moulded edging (top and sides); from top: double star stamp repeated four times; date between two triads of the same initials, the 'Y' and the 'N' reversed; stylised fleur-de-lys below each pair of initials, with a large hollow fleur-de-lys in the centre.

    Notes: The initials 'NYM' in triad probably relate to a couple whose surname initial was 'Y'; a fireback, dated 1659, with some of the same stamps is at the Dean Heritage Centre, Soudley, Gloucestershire, and another, dated 1667, has been noted at Upper End Farm, Hope Mansell, Herefordshire. Christie's auction, 24 May 2001.

    Inscription: NYM [triad] 1669 NYM [triad]

    Manufactured: in 1669 in the Forest of Dean area of England.

    Current location:.

  2. 1037

    criterion_auctions, bath, lot 168 10 sep 2016 350x420.jpg
    350 x 420 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; fillet edging; central rose with stem and two branches with leaves, surmounted by a crown.

    Notes: The rose is more naturalistic than heraldic. Criterion Auctions, Bath, 10 Sep 2016 lot 168.

    Manufactured: in the early to mid 17th century in England.

    Current location:.

  3. 162

    hastings_museum 045a.jpg
    565 x 420 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular shaped; cavetto-moulded edge; figure of St Paul, a sword in his left hand, holding a viper in his right hand over flames rising from the ground.

    Notes: The scene illustrates an episode in the New Testament, Acts 28: 3. The design shows stylistic similarities to other firebacks where simple, well-executed relief has overlapped the cavetto edging. Formerly part of the Ade Collection (from Grove Hill, Hellingly, Sussex).

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Manufactured: in the mid to late 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: 1952.51.25 (part of the Hastings Museum museum group)

    Citation: Butterfield, W. R., 1916, 'Old Wealden Firebacks', The Connoisseur, 46, pp. 197-209.

    Citation: Hamling, T., 2015, 'Seeing Salvation in the Domestic Hearth in Post-Reformation England' in J. Willis (ed.), Sin and Salvation in Reformation England (Farnham, Ashgate Publishing), 223-44.

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

    Citation: Schubert, H. R., 1957, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry (London, Routledge), pp. 256-264.

  4. 1031

    saxtead_green, limes farmhouse.jpg
    460 x 420 mm

    Description: Rectangular; astragal and fillet edging; two heater-shaped shields side by side, with a stag trippant crest above centre.

    Notes: The dexter shield: quarterly first and fourth, a saracen's head affronté, erased at the shoulders wreathed about the temples; second and third, three lozenges in fess conjoined within a border; a baronet's inescutcheon in the centre chief. The sinister shield: on a bend cotised three gryphons' heads erased. The identity of the arms has yet to be determined.

    Manufactured: in the 19th century in England.

    Current location: in private hands, Saxtead, Suffolk, England.