Firebacks

Description: Arched rectangular central panel with 'nutshell' over fillet edging; pictorial image of a partially clothed female figure, holding an upraised wreath in her left hand, standing on a ground, with a gadrooned vase containing flowers and leaves to the right, and above swagged drapery and sun rays; arched rectangular fillet border with descending leaves and flowers suspended from a wreath, top centre, and a wreath in each top corner; on top, mirrored sea monsters; bottom centre, a cartouche bearing the letter ‘N’; on top, two mirrored, stylised serpents.

Notes: The figure is an allegorical representation of Agriculture, one of the Iconologia originally published by Cesare Ripa in 1613. A modern casting of the same fireback is no. 1119.

Inscription: N