Firebacks

653mm tall

  1. 432

    lewes,_sussex arch soc 068.jpg
    850 x 653 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging; top centre, inscription panel.

    Notes: One of several firebacks that re-use the memorial inscription to 'Ane Forster' (Anne Foster) of Crowhurst, Surrey. Formerly in the John H. Every collection, for which it was purchased in 1921 in Broadway, Worcs., having allegedly come from Billingshurst, Sussex.

    Inscription: HER:LIETH:ANE:FORST / R:DAVGHTER:AND: / HEYR:TO:THOMAS: / GAYNSFORD:ESQVIER / DECEASED:XVIII:OF: / IANVARI:1591:LEAVYNG / BEHIND:HER:II:SONES: / AND:V:DAVGHTERS

    Manufactured: in the late-16th century possibly at Pounsley Furnace, Framfield in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Anne of Cleves House, Southover High Street, Lewes, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: Shoreham 92/1900 (part of the Sussex Archaeological Society museum group)

    Citation: Hodgkinson, J. S., 2018, 'The Anne Forster Firebacks', Surrey Archaeological Collections, 101, 99-114.

  2. 797

    wisborough_green, idehurst.jpg
    1247 x 653 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); three impressions of an ornate firedog, each incorporating lion’s legs, above it a pedestal with a lion’s head, surmounted by a caryatid, a shield shaped cartouche over its lower trunk, and with a floral vase headdress. The dog impressions are not evenly stamped, the middle one lying to the right.

    Notes: The firedogs are much more elaborate than those customarily used as stamps on firebacks and indicate a later date; they probably included brass elements and were possibly French.

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

    Current location: in private hands, Wisborough Green, West Sussex, England.

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