Firebacks

Description: Canted rectangle; complex moulded edging (top and sides); rectangular incised initial stamp repeated ten times 3-4-3.

Notes: The use of an incised stamp is uncommon.

Inscription: RTI [repeated 10 times]

Description: Canted rectangle; twisted rope edging; plain plate

Description: Arched rectangular shaped central panel, bead edging, narrow-necked urn with swagged decoration and gadrooned base, flowers issuing therefrom; arched rectangular shaped border with fillet edging and symmetrical floral festoons; on top, mirrored plant fronds descending from a small mask; at the bottom, an indistinct cartouche and a probable letter 'W' between swirled foliage.

Notes: Small firebacks of this type and period might have been cast at one of the London foundries and used for attaching to the rear of dog grates. The initial 'W' probably denotes the pattern maker.

Inscription: W

Description: Rectangular shape; ovolo-moulded edging (top and sides); date across the top, separated by a bead; initials below date, also separated by a bead.

Notes: The moulded edging has been formed of mis-matched strips. The identical shape and size of the number '2' has been seen on another fireback of 1720. Mallam’s auction, Abingdon, 18 Oct 2022, lot 1122.

Inscription: 17 29 / H I

Description: Rectangular; astragal edging; leopard passant guardant sinister canted, facing a leopard passant, with a crowned shield between bearing the initials, KH, above a fleur-de-lys.

Notes: One of the Royal series with uncommonly few stamps.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: KH

Description: Arched rectangular central panel with hollow bead edging on a broad fillet; figure of a woman standing on a mound, holding a bow in her right hand and an arrow in her left, a plant to her right, and drapery swags above; arched rectangular border with symmetrical swirls of foliage and diagonal leaves at corners; monogram centre bottom between swirled tendrils; on top, symmetrical, swirled foliage.

Notes: The figure is probably of Diana/Artemis, goddess of hunting, as she carries a bow and arrow, and has a hound at her feet.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: SHR

Description: Arched rectangular shaped central panel with bead-on-fillet edging; a peacock, facing right, standing on a plinth, with foliage to the left and clouds above; arched rectangular shaped border with fillet edging, symmetrical floral fronds descending from a scallop shell, top centre, with a scallop shell inside each shoulder; at base, detail mostly obscured by corrosion but the numerals '17 24' are faintly visible in the bottom corners; on top, a pair of mirrored, stylised sea serpents with a central arrangement of foliage.

Notes: The image of the peacock may be an adaptation of an engraving (1654-62) by Wenceslaus Hollar, after Francis Barlow, in which a peacock also stands on a plinth. The small size of this fireback makes it likely that it was intended to be fixed to the back of a grate. A copy of a fireback of this design features in Gleanings from Old English Firesides by Arthur Todhunter.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: 17 24

Description: Plain rectangular shape with chamfered and embattled top edge; impression of a utilitarian, domestic knife inclined, blade down, at an angle of about 45 degrees from inside the top corners; the knife measures about 20.5cm in length.

Notes: An unusual, if not unique, top edge. The form of the knife suggests a late-16th or early-17th century date. The uneven surface of the lower part of the fireback may have been caused by the pouring of the molten metal and the consequent disturbance of the casting sand of the mould.

Description: Canted rectangular shape; astragal edging with repeated fleurs-de-lys inside top and side edges; figure of St George impaling a dragon to the left with a lance over an undulating ground, with a kneeling figure above a sheep to the right.

Notes: The mould for this unusual fireback may have been formed using a redundant carved, medieval wooden panel, perhaps from a church. Wilkinson's Auctioneers, Doncaster, 24 June 2018, lot 132.

Description: Canted rectangular shape; twisted rope edging formed of six lengths of 23cm (top and sides); top centre, rectangular panel with cavetto-moulded edging (left side missing) enclosing date between initials CT, all interposed with dots; below, eight shields of Ayloffe impaling Sulyard in three rows (3-2-3); Ayloffe: sable, a lion rampant Or, collared gules, between three crosses formy of the second; Sulyard: argent, a chevron gules between three pheons inverted sable.

Notes: William Ayloffe (c1535-1584) of Hornchurch, Essex, Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench, married (c1560) Jane, dau. of Sir Eustace Sulyard, of Runwell, Essex. The initials 'CT' are likely to be those of Charles Tyler, a founder whose working life and that of his family have strong parallels with the occurrence of these firebacks. The excrescence affecting the left shield in the middle row and the blemish left of the middle shield in the top row are the result of inexpert ladling of the iron during casting. Previously at Smarden, Kent.

Inscription: C.1.6.1.2.T

Arms: Ayloffe impaling Sulyard (William Ayloffe of Bretons, Hornchurch)