Firebacks

765mm tall

  1. 878

    birling,_5 birling park.jpg
    804 x 765 mm

    Description: Cavetto-canted arched rectangle; twisted rope edging, separately around rectangle and arch; initials 'R' and 'H' in upper left and right corners of rectangle; 'M' above date in arch.

    Notes: The arch does not appear to have been a separate stamp, although the rope edging gives that impression; the initials, in triad, suggest a husband and wife - R.. and H.. M..

    Inscription: M / 1654 / / R H

    Manufactured: in 1654 possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Birling, Kent, England.

    Citation: Hodgkinson, J. S., 2012, 'Pre-Restoration Iron Firebacks', Journal of the Antique Metalware Society, 20, pp. 2-15.

  2. 498

    midhurst,_cowdray house 01.jpg
    <750 x 765 mm

    Description: Arched plate; ovolo moulding edging; shield, supporters, coronet, helm, crest and motto of Viscount Montague; quarterly Browne, Albini, Fitzalan, Fitzalan of Clare, Warren, Maltravers, Nevill, Montagu, Monthermer, Inglethorpe, Burghe, Delapole, Bradeston, Tiptoft, Charleton and Kent (Plantagenet); supporters: two bears collared and chained; the crest: an eagle, the wings elevated and displayed.

    Notes: The arms of either the 2nd (Anthony-Maria Browne, succ. 1592-1629) or 3rd viscount (Francis Browne succ. 1629-1682) - the 1st viscount was a Knight of the Garter and no garter is shown; the style of the modelling bears similarities to that on the 1618 series of firebacks and may be the work of the same pattern-maker.

    Inscription: 16 / VERITATE DUCE [Be led by Truth]

    Arms: Viscount Montague

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

    Current location: Cowdray House ruins, Midhurst, West Sussex, England.

    Citation: Dawson, C., 1903, 'Sussex Iron Work and Pottery', Sussex Archaeological Collections, 46, pp. 1-54.

    Citation: Gardner, J. S., 1898, 'Iron Casting in the Weald', Archaeologia, 56, 1, pp. 133-164.

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

    Citation: Roundell, Mrs C. (J. A. E. T.), 1907, Cowdray: The History of a Great English House (London, Bickers & Son), pp. 28-9.