Firebacks

Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto moulded edging; garter enclosing Stuart royal arms, with supporters, crown and motto; date split either side of garter buckle.

Notes: The style of the numerals is very similar to those on a plate bearing a lion, dated 1656, and is likely to be the work of the same pattern-maker; a variant (no. 253) has a substituted date of 1664.

Inscription: C R / 16 41

Arms: English Stuart royal

Description: Arched; twisted rope edging; date at top; initials in triad below date.

Notes: A tall fireback in proportion to its height, probably specifically related to its early use with a coal fire.

Inscription: 1648 / TMH [triad]

Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); inscription (‘S’ reversed) across upper middle of plate, with superscripted central ‘I’ (crossed) ; below each part of the date is a twisted rope saltire (145mm lengths).

Notes: A personal fireback, made to order; a similar commission by Giles Moore, Rector of Horsted Keynes, Sussex, in 1657, cost 13 shillings.

Inscription: I / 16 E S 63

Description: Canted rectangle; elaborate cavetto moulded edging (top and sides); strapwork shield with a demi-flower at each side, between initials; arms quarterly of six, 1st Or two chevronels Gules, on a canton of the last a mullet of the first (Pope); 2nd Argent three bars Gules, on a canton ermine a bend of lozenges of the second (Walshe); 3rd Sable three laurel leaves in bend Or between two bendlets Argent (Waller); 4th Azure a chevron between three crosses Moline Argent (Lansdale); 5th Ermine on a bend Gules three lions' heads erased Or (Weston); 6th Azure a lion rampant Or supporting a cross patée fitchée of the second (Pichingham).

Notes: The lower part of the shield is revealed more clearly in another casting. The date above the shield has been inserted before casting and differs slightly from another example of the same back.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: 1625 / S P

Arms: Pope (Sackevile Pope (b. 1589) of Hendall, in Buxted, Sussex)

Description: Rectangular; astragal and fillet edging; date across top of plate.

Notes: One of a series of backs dating to the 1730s and 40s using very similar sets of letters and numerals. Sold at Christie's Masters and Makers auction, 30 November 2010, lot 521 (£1000 part lot with no. 601, no. 623 and no. 634).

Inscription: 1736

Description: Rectangular; stepped fillet moulded edging (top and sides); small fleur-de-lys stamp repeated five times, three centred across the top, two centred across the middle.

Notes: The fleur-de-lys stamp appears to have been constructed using wire.

Description: Arched rectangular shaped central panel, bead edging (top and sides), pedestal bearing a supine male figure with headband being trampled by a horse, facing left, mounted by a rider with long hair, facing to the front; on each side of the plinth is a seated figure with a basket of fruit; the inscription is split either side of the horse; arched rectangular shaped border, fillet edging, on each side a Solomonic column with vine decoration; in the arch, symmetrical parallel curved lines intertwined beneath a crown; on top of each shoulder of the plate a female figure in repose.

Notes: The equestrian figure is derived from the statue of Charles II erected in Stocks Market, London, in 1672. Originally to be of Jan Sobieski, later king of Poland, riding down a Tatar, it was altered to represent Charles, and the Tatar’s face was changed to that of Oliver Cromwell; the statue attracted a fair degree of derision. The 'CC' monogram is likely to be for Charles and Catherine (of Braganza). The statue is now at Newby Hall, near Ripon, North Yorkshire. Another version (no. 280), probably by the same pattern-maker, is dated 1674 and has altered initials.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: CC [interlocked, and the first reversed] R

Description: Arched rectangular shape; ovolo moulded edging; Tudor royal shield, garter, crown, motto and supporters (crowned lion and dragon), temp. Elizabeth I; the top of the lion's crown and the dragon's ear overlap the edging.

Notes: Another version has a rose and portcullis either side of the crown, and the top of the lion's crown and the dragon's ear do not overlap the edging; a faint blank rectangular stamp on each side of the crown may have been to hide initials, which have been noted on a variant of this fireback.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: [Garter] HONI SOIT QVI MAL E PENSE / [motto] DIEV ET MON DROIT

Arms: Tudor royal

Description: Rectangular; cavetto-moulding within a flanged edge; floriate arch above a female figure with a child in her left arm and another by her right side, initials split by the group; below a simulated rope-twist fillet, elaborate floriate cartouche containing the word, CHARITAS.

Notes: A late stove-plate, illustrated in von den Driesch p.484.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: G S / CHARITAS

Description: Canted rectangular shape; twisted rope edging (top and sides only; two approximately parallel horizontal lines of twisted rope across the upper centre; from the upper line and starting at the top corners, five regularly-spaced vertical lines of twisted rope extending to the top edge, the centre one with a horizontal rope length formiong a cross.

Notes: A simple rope design with apotropaic significance.