Firebacks

  1. 377

    lewes,_sussex arch soc 012.jpg
    335 x 520 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular central panel with bead on fillet edging and two tassels hanging from top of arch; pictorial image of a cherub with arrows in both hands sitting on a phoenix; arched rectangular border with fillet edging; scallop shell at top with descending ribbons and fruit clusters; date and monogram below central panel; bottom panel with inscription; on top, two sea serpents, with open buds on shoulders of recatngle.

    Notes: The customary monogram on such firebacks is NDV. Several anglicised versions of this type of fireback exist. Formerly part of the J. H. Every collection.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 17 NDW 01 / VOGEL PHOENIX [bird phoenix]

    Manufactured: in 1701 in the Siegerland area of Germany.

    Current location: Anne of Cleves House, Southover High Street, Lewes, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: 1944.24.087 (part of the Sussex Archaeological Society museum group)

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