Firebacks

  1. 930

    rottingdean_04(2j).jpg
    470 x 740 mm

    Description: Carved wooden fireback pattern. Arched rectangular central panel with cavetto-canted shoulders and bead edging on a broad fillet; seated female figure in a chariot drawn by armadillos, symmetrical hanging drapery above right; same-shaped border with fillet edging at top, and suspended ribbons with floral bunches; at base, symmetrical palm leaves tied with ribbon; symmetrical serpents on top their tails intertwined.

    Notes: The design is derived from a personification of America, on one of a set of playing cards entitled Jeu de la Géographie, designed by Stefano della Bella (1677); reputedly from Mayfield; presented to Brighton Museum by Henry Willetts. A casting from this pattern is no. 215.

    Manufactured: in the late-17th to early-18th century in England.

    Current location: Rottingdean Grange, Rottingdean, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: R3341/7 (part of the Brighton Museum museum group)

    Citation: Dawson, C., 1903, 'Sussex Iron Work and Pottery', Sussex Archaeological Collections, 46, pp. 1-54.

    Citation: Hodgkinson, J. S., 2010, British Cast-Iron Firebacks of the 16th to Mid-18th Centuries (Crawley, Hodgers Books).

    Citation: Hughes, G. B., 21 Apr 1955, 'Old English Firebacks', Country Life, 117, pp. 1056-60.

    Citation: Hughes, G. B., Sep 1929, 'Old English Firebacks in the Collection of Mr John H. Every', Old Furniture, 8, pp. 28-32.