Firebacks

  1. 1023

    coombes,_old rectory.jpg
    975 x 610 mm

    Description: Canted rectangle; hatched fillet edging (top and sides); initials in triad to the left; fleur-de-lys stamp repeated seven times across top; date and initial pairs below; full width, horizontal hatched fillet below inscription; zig-zag formed of short, hatched fillets down each side below horizontal fillet; space within bordered by squared cross stamp repeated 12 times horizontally and six times on each side.

    Notes: The distinctive squared cross and fleur stamps are seen on other firebacks; the initials in triad may relate to a husband and wife, the pairs of initials to their children; an almost identical fireback seen at Smith's Funeral Services, close to the site of Elmbridge Furnace, at Newent, Gloucestershire, differs only in the alignment of the left-hand column of squared crosses.

    Inscription: AHE [triad] 1671 WH MH

    Manufactured: in 1671 possibly at Elmbridge Furnace, Newent in the Forest of Dean area of England.

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