Firebacks

Description: Rectangular; rope edging (top and sides); central Tudor royal shield with encircling garter (motto reversed: HONE SOVT QVEY … PEN), separate greyhound and lion supporters, separate crown; a bird, repeated in each top corner, its wings displayed and inverted and its head facing behind and to the left, standing on a scroll; a fleur de lys repeated in the bottom corners; inside the birds is a repeated stamp, part of one noted on a fireback in Hastings Museum.

Notes: The particular form of the Tudor arms and supporters is frequently encountered; the birds (probably swans, a Lancastrian icon) are also seen on other firebacks, as are the distinctive style of fleurs de lys; the combined use of these three groups of stamps suggests a common source.

Arms: Tudor royal (prob. Henry VIII)