Firebacks

Description: Arched rectangular shaped central panel with paternost bead edging; figure holding a bow in his left hand and a lyre in his right hand, a quiver suspended from his belt, on an undulating ground with small trees, and suspended swags of drapery above; Arched rectangular shaped border with fillet edging, and symmetrical flowers and swirled tendrils; initials at bottom centre; on top, symmetrical pattern of swirled leaves and tendrils.

Notes: The figure is Apollo, personifying the Sun, one of a set of 'Eight Deities' engraved by Hendrick Goltzius (1592), after Polidoro da Caravaggio; the fireback is one of a large group bearing the same initials, which probably denotes the pattern maker. Other groups may have been the work of the same carver or workshop. The execution is rather crude. Formerly part of the J. H. Every collection.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: SHR