Firebacks

850mm tall

  1. 47

    cuckfield,_legh manor 02.jpg
    1220 x 850 mm

    Description: Rectangular with canted top corners; ovolo-moulded edging (except base); top centre, cherub face and wings; below, date separated by initials in triad on either side of which a stag statant on a chapeau.

    Notes: The cherub is similar, but not identical to those on a fireback, of 1713, from Ashburnham, and the layout and edging are also similar.

    Inscription: 17 ICI [triad] 30

    Manufactured: in 1730 possibly at Ashburnham Furnace in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Cuckfield, West Sussex, England.

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

  2. 935

    dammarie-sur-saulx_a.jpg
    ~850 x ~850 mm

    Description: Carved wooden fireback pattern. Rectangular shape with fillet edging; pictorial scene with three nymphs playing cymbals and tambourine, and dancing in the shade of two trees, with three satyrs play pipes behind; a jug stands on a pedestal; in the foreground a putto fills a jug from a barrel.

    Notes: From the Fonderie Salan, Dammarie-sur-Saulx (Meuse).

    Manufactured: in the 18th century in France.

    Current location: not known.

  3. 1064

    dunsfold,_pound farm a.jpg
    1270 x 850 mm

    Description: A rectangular field with a central circle containing a fouled anchor, the rope gathered in eleven loops around it; in the top spandrels the initials HH, on the left, and IH, on the right; below the circle, the initials IM inset in a square; on each side, a strapwork Ionic pilaster formed of alternate hollow squares, with a pyramidal infill in low relief, and hollow circles; outside each pilaster, a crouching stylised humanoid figure, facing inwards, disgorging a fructed vine; above the figures two opposed volutes, forming part of the edging; above the central field, a semi-circular compartment containing a bird, its wings inverted, and three hollow diamond shapes irregularly arranged; the date above the bird; protruding from the edging above each pilaster is a small, inward-facing scroll. Three vertical plank lines can be discerned, one in front of the right-hand figure, one through the I of the initials IH, and one to the right of the second H of the initials HH. The whole design is in low relief.

    Notes: This is a reworking of a design seen on a fireback of 1608 (no. 585) though intentionally stylised. The decorative elements have yet to be fully interpreted; on the 1608 version the figures are fauns, the vines disgorged from their mouths being related to the 'green man' tradition associated with woodland spirits and symbolising resurrection, the latter echoed by the bird which, on the earlier version is a phoenix. However, in the form in which they appear on both firebacks they may be purely decorative devices. By contrast, the cabled anchor is the badge of the Lord High Admiral but in 1633 the office was vacant. The initials IM indicate that this is an early work by a prolific fireback pattern-maker more usually associated with the eastern Weald.

    Inscription: 1633 / HH IH / IM

    Manufactured: in 1633 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Pound Farm, Common Road, Dunsfold, Surrey, England.

    Citation: Wall, J. R. S., 20 May 1965, 'Wealden Fireback' [letter], Country Life, p. 1208.

  4. 84

    guildford_museum 09.jpg
    945 x >850 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; ‘egg and dart’ ovolo moulding visible on top and sides; shield, helmet, crest, mantling and supporters of the Mohun family.

    Notes: Cast from a finely carved pattern, the supporters denote these are the arms of a peer. The crest is: Gules, a maunch ermine, with a hand proper holding a fleur de lys or. Egg and dart moulding is rare and examples (at Maidstone and Burwash) may be the work of the same pattern maker. From Sidney Farm, Alfold, Surrey; Reginald Mohun (pron. Moon) of Dedisham, Slinfold, Sussex, was husband of Elizabeth Blounte of Dedisham c.1636. Bottom missing due to corrosion.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Arms: Mohun family, barons of Okehampton

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

    Current location: Guildford Museum, Guildford, Surrey, England.

    Museum number: G.7106 (part of the Guildford Museum museum group)

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

  5. 355

    kenilworth_castle.jpg
    860 x 850 mm

    Description: Rectangular joined to pediment by symmetrical scrolls; fillet edging with embattling inside; shield, helm, crest, supporters and mantling of the city of Bristol; date split by bottom of shield; inscription in an oval cartouche below shield.

    Notes: Both '3's in the date are a substitution, with another casting suggesting an original date of 1614 or 1624. The pattern-maker was also responsible for carving royal coats of arms in three West Country churches and a small number of series of firebacks in the first quarter of the 17th century.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 16 33 / [ARMES] BRISTOLL

    Arms: City of Bristol

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

    Current location: Kenilworth Castle, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England.

    Museum number: 88278827 (part of the English Heritage museum group)

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

    Citation: Hodgkinson, J. S., 2017, 'Church Armorials and Firebacks: Evidence of an Early 17th-Century Woodcarver', Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 135, pp. 213-223.

    Citation: Russell, A. J., 1978, 'The Fireback in Willey Farmhouse, Chaldon', Local History Records, 17 (The Bourne Society), pp. 8-9.