Firebacks

  1. 191

    helston,_godolphin house 01.jpg
    770 x 640 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangle; cavetto moulded edging; Tudor royal shield, Garter and crown, with crowned lion and dragon supporters; motto along bottom; Tudor rose to left of crown, portcullis to right.

    Notes: This painted fireback is reputed to have been a gift from King Henry VIII to the second Sir William Godolphin, who was present at the Siege of Boulogne in 1544 with a party of Godolphin tin miners.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: HONI SOIT QVI MAL E PENSE / DIEU ET MON DROIT

    Arms: Tudor royal (Elizabeth I)

    Manufactured: in the mid- to late-16th century possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Godolphin House, Helston, Cornwall, England.

    Museum number: 169480 (part of the National Trust museum group)

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