Firebacks

  1. 566

    pet-m-59.jpg
    560 x 731 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular central panel; bead-on-fillet edging; wickerwork Garden of Holland (Hollandse Tuin) within which is seated a berobed female figure holding a cap of freedom on the end of a long pole; before her is the crowned heraldic lion of the States General of the Netherlands, clutching a sheaf of arrows in its left front paw; above are the words, Pro Patria; arched rectangular border with cavetto-moulded edging, with the word, Hollandia, in the arch, suspended from which are festoons of flowers and fruit and the date within a scroll on the bottom; on top, a scallop shell between two mirrored serpents.

    Notes: An overtly patriotic theme with symbols of Dutch nationhood.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: HOLLANDIA / PRO PATRIA / ANNO 1662

    Manufactured: in 1662 in the Siegerland area of Germany.

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

    Museum number: NT/PET/M/59 (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).