Firebacks

  1. 1192

    worth,_saxon_road_02a.jpg
    815 x 530 mm

    Description: Canted rectangular shape; twisted rope edging formed of six lengths of 23cm (top and sides); top centre, rectangular panel with cavetto-moulded edging (left side missing) enclosing date between initials CT, all interposed with dots; below, eight shields of Ayloffe impaling Sulyard in three rows (3-2-3); Ayloffe: sable, a lion rampant Or, collared gules, between three crosses formy of the second; Sulyard: argent, a chevron gules between three pheons inverted sable.

    Notes: William Ayloffe (c1535-1584) of Hornchurch, Essex, Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench, married (c1560) Jane, dau. of Sir Eustace Sulyard, of Runwell, Essex. The initials 'CT' are likely to be those of Charles Tyler, a founder whose working life and that of his family have strong parallels with the occurrence of these firebacks. The excrescence affecting the left shield in the middle row and the blemish left of the middle shield in the top row are the result of inexpert ladling of the iron during casting. Previously at Smarden, Kent.

    Inscription: C.1.6.1.2.T

    Arms: Ayloffe impaling Sulyard (William Ayloffe of Bretons, Hornchurch)

    Manufactured: in 1612 possibly at Bedgebury Furnace, Goudhurst in the Weald area of England.

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

    Citation: Cowper, H. S., 1911, 'A Series of Kentish Heraldic Firebacks and the Identification of the Arms', Archaeologia Cantiana, 29, pp. 40-6.

    Citation: Hodgkinson, J. S., 2018, 'A series of Kentish firebacks and the possible identification of their founder', Archaeologia Cantiana, 139, pp. 312-15.