Firebacks

  1. 559

    pet-m-53.jpg
    715 x 450 mm

    Description: Arched rectangle with crude scalloping around the edges; elaborate, symmetrical strapwork frame with scrolls top left and right, and below, a bunch of grapes hanging from the top, and the head and forelegs of a goat climbing through; inside each upper scroll, a small astragel edged oval.

    Notes: The strapwork, a distinctive feature of Elizabethan design, was probably derived from redundant furniture. Marks round the edge of this fireback suggest that it may have been reduced from a larger size.

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

    Current location: Petworth House, Petworth, West Sussex, England.

    Museum number: NT/PET/M/53 (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).