Firebacks

  1. 446

    lewes,_sussex arch soc 086a.jpg
    575 x 760 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular; bead edging; pictorial scene of Venus, naked and kneeling, and Adonis, standing, holding a spear in his left hand, with Cupid to the left, and a hound to the right; pomegranates on top and on each shoulder of the plate, with two symmetrical, descending serpents.

    Notes: Probably based on one of two paintings of Venus and Adonis by Peter Paul Rubens.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Manufactured: in the mid to late 17th century in the Siegerland area of Germany.

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

    Museum number: LH000.971 (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).