Firebacks

915mm tall

  1. 34

    chawton_house 02.jpg
    710 x 915 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; astragal and fillet edging (top and sides) with overlapping leaf pattern; floral cartouche with lion’s face at top, enclosing a shield bearing the arms of May (Gules, a fess between eight billets Or) quartering Broadnax (Or, two chevrons gules, on a chief of the last three cinquefoils Argent); at base a plain cuboid plinth.

    Notes: Thomas Broadnax (1701-81), son of William Broadnax of Godmersham, Kent, and Anne May, heiress of Christopher May, inherited the estate of his cousin, Sir Thomas May, adopting his surname in 1727. He later changed his name to Knight on inheriting the estate of that family at Chawton in 1738.

    Arms: May quartering Broadnax

    Manufactured: in the early-18th century possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Chawton House, Chawton, Hampshire, England.

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

  2. 554

    pet-m-46.jpg
    657 x 915 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular central panel with bead-on-fillet edging; pictorial scene of a seated female holding a small child, with two putti, one on each side of her, the one on her right holding an olive branch, the one on her left holding a flaming heart, his foot aginst a globe; arched rectangular border with fillet edging; top centre, laurel wreath from which descend festoons of flowers and fruit suspended from roses; at the bottom, a cartouche containing the intials between two cornucopiae; on top, a scallop shell between two descending dolphins.

    Notes: The group is an allegorical representation of Charity

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: H S

    Manufactured: in the mid- to late-17th century in the Siegerland area of Germany.

    Current location: Petworth House, Petworth, West Sussex, England.

    Museum number: NT/PET/M/46 (part of the National Trust museum group)

  3. 687

    sevenoaks,_knole 03.jpg
    905 x 915 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Rectangular with arched rectangular shaped top joined by cavetto curves; astragal edging; shield, supporters, ducal coronet, motto and garter of the Duke of Dorset: Quarterly, Or and gules, a bend vair.

    Notes: Almost certainly the arms of Lionel Sackville KG (1688-1765), created first duke of Dorset in 1720.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: [around shield] HONY SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE / [on motto scroll] AUT NUNQUAM TENTES, AUT PERFICE

    Arms: Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset

    Manufactured: in the early-18th century in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Knole, Sevenoaks, Kent, England.

    Museum number: NT/KNO/M/41 (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).

  4. 1143

    soudley,_dean heritage centre 03a.jpg
    >675 x >915 mm

    Description: Fragment, left side missing; arched rectangular shape; fillet edging (top and sides visible); initials IG widely spaced in arch.

    Notes: Previously at Bream Court Farm, Newland, Gloucestershire.

    Inscription: I G

    Manufactured: in the 17th century possibly in the Forest of Dean area of England.

    Current location: Dean Heritage Centre, Camp Mill, Soudley, Gloucestershire, England.

    Citation: Mullin, D., 1989, 'Two Firebacks', The New Regard, Forest of Dean Local History Society, 5, pp. 47-50.