Firebacks

914mm tall

  1. 24

    burwash,_batemans 02.jpg
    593 x 914 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular shaped with fillet and cavetto dentil moulding, and paternost bead edging inside; a lion rampant

    Notes: Whole pattern. An unusually tall fireback in relation to its width.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Manufactured: in the 18th century in England.

    Current location: Bateman's, Burwash, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: 761107 (part of the National Trust museum group)

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

  2. 267

    dawson_02.jpg
    1422 x 914 mm

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); top centre, crowned Tudor royal shield (over-pressed) between a leopard passant guardant sinister (on the left) and a leopard passant (on the right); below, crowned shield bearing initials, KH, above a fleur-de-lys, between two further leopards, styles as above; below the lower shield, two 'imp' figures, the left one with both arms lowered, the right with its right arm raised; outside each lower leopard, a crowned rose (over-pressed); each top corner, a pair of ‘imp’ figures styles as before.

    Notes: One of the 'Royal' series. Illustration from Dawson 1903. Formerly in the collection of Dr C. Prince, of Crowborough, Sussex. Further deterioration at the bottom of the casting has caused some loss of metal.

    Inscription: KH

    Arms: Tudor royal arms of England

    Manufactured: in the mid 16th century in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Leeds Castle, Leeds, Kent, England.

    Citation: Balcomb, J. T., Nov. 1886, 'An Extinct Sussex Art', The Art Journal, pp. 337-340.

    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.

  3. 86

    hadlow_down antiques 02.jpg
    660 x 914 mm

    Description: Quasi-arched rectangular shape; fillet edging; central female figure with urn on head, above which is an oval cartouche (possibly a mirror); to left, fireplace with basket grate, above which a lobster and another (unidentified) creature bear a covered vase; to right a seated female figure stretches forth her left arm, behind her is a statue of a female figure on a plinth at the foot of a curving flight of stairs; the whole is surrounded by naturalistic rocks and trees, suggesting a grotto.

    Notes: An unusually free pictorial decoration.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Manufactured: in the early 18th century in England.

    Current location: in private hands, Hadlow Down, East Sussex, England.