Firebacks

  1. 130

    hastings_020.jpg
    370 x 610 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular shaped central panel with bead on fillet edging; helmeted figure of Mars holding a cutlass in his right hand, standing on a field of flags, spears and cannon; 'Palladian' shaped border with fillet edging enclosing a repeated scrollwork pattern with floral arrangement at base; on top, symmetrical arrangement of scallop shell between two sea serpents and plant fronds.

    Notes: Although in the 'Dutch'; style, an absence of this type in continental collections suggests an British source. Formerly part of the Ade Collection (from Grove Hill, Hellingly, Sussex).

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Manufactured: in the late-17th to early-18th century in England.

    Current location: Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, John's Place, Bohemia Road, Hastings, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: HASMG: 1952.51.32 (part of the Hastings Museum museum group)

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