Firebacks

733mm tall

  1. 1301

    deerfield_ma_1a.jpg
    470 x 733 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shaped central panel, bead-and-pellet on fillet edging; beneath swagged curtains, a basket containing a variety of fruit - plums, apples, pears and grapes - resting on a table or plinth covered with a fringed cloth; arched rectangular shaped border with fillet edging and symmetrical foliate tendrils; date in bottom corners split betwen foliate tendrils incorporating looped 'W' shapes; on top, symmetrical scrolled plant tendrils.

    Notes: One of a series of firebacks made originally in 1724. The basket of fruit was probably inspired by still-life paintings by European artists of the first half of the 17th century. Formerly at Salem, Massachusetts.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 17 24

    Manufactured: in 1724 in England.

    Current location: Historic Deerfield, 80 Old Main Street, Deerfield, Massachusetts, United States of America.

    Museum number: HD 53.086 (part of the Historic Deerfield museum group)

  2. 293

    flaxley_abbey 03.jpg
    900 x 733 mm

    Description: Canted rectangle; inset twisted rope edging (top and sides); stamp formed of a statuette of an standing angel with left hand at the waist, and holding a sceptre in the right hand; date split either side of angel; initials in triad above angel; small face stamp repeated three times, one each side of angel, and one below.

    Notes: The identity of those to whom the initials refer is not known; the use of the angel statuette is a rare inclusion of a religious motif on an English fireback. A variant of this fireback is at the Lygon Arms Hotel, Broadway, Worcestershire (no. 1027).

    Inscription: IHI [triad] / 16 33

    Manufactured: in 1633 in the Forest of Dean area of England.

    Current location: Flaxley Abbey, Flaxley, Gloucestershire, England.

    Citation: Bick, D. E. [incorrectly printed as Bick, R.], Sept 1985, 'Firebacks', Period Homes, pp. 21-4.

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