Firebacks

Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto-moulded edging; on each side a column of small overlapping leaves above a pedestal with a single acanthus leaf; issuing from the top of each column two ribbons, in figure-of-eight with grenade terminals, fly across the arch; within an arched rectangular central panel with bead edging three naked children disport about a swag of fruit, with a central pomegranate, suspended from the top of each column; one figure sits on the top, facing right, the other two hang symmetrically from below, with mirrored swirls behind them; along the base is a line of acanthus leaves; on top a sea serpent is curled on each end.

Notes: The design may have been inspired by the paintings of Jan Pauwel Gillemans the younger (1651-1704); he may have worked in London in 1675-8. Another version of the fireback (no. 591), probably by the same pattern-maker, has a slightly different design.

Copies of this fireback are known.