Firebacks

Description: Arched, rectangular central panel with fillet edging; figure of Abundance holding a sickle and a Horn of Plenty, a child, also holding a sickle, to the right, a seated dog to the left, framed by trees; fillet-edged border with a plant pot each side, lilies issuing therefrom; above an oval shield of arms, a grotesque face above, supported by two lions.

Notes: Abundance was one of many allegorical figures to feature in the Iconologia, first published by Cesare Ripa in 1593. The style of the fireback derives from those produced in the Siegenland of NW Germany for the Dutch market, but this example may be a pastiche produced for the French market.

Copies of this fireback are known.