Firebacks

In the Gloucester Museums museum group

  1. 303

    gloucester_folk museum 01.jpg
    1130 x 680 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Rectangle with curved shoulders and low arch joined with concave curves; fillet and ogee moulded edging; central Tudor royal shield surrounded by garter, with crown above and lion and dragon supporters; royal initials either side of crown.

    Notes: Damaged on bottom left corner; the garter motto includes ‘EQVI’ instead of ‘HONI’, making it meaningless; possibly ‘EQVI’ was a mis-transcription of ‘HONI’; the crown is distinctly continental in form; a much-copied fireback. Previously at Hoarthorns Farm, West Dean, Gloucestershire, where another fireback of the same design was recovered from a pond and is now at the Forestry Commission camp site at Christchurch, near Coleford.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: E R / EQVI : SOIT : QVI : MAL : Y : PENSE

    Arms: Tudor royal - Edward VI or Elizabeth I

    Manufactured: in the mid- to late-16th century possibly in the Forest of Dean area of England.

    Current location: Gloucester Folk Museum, Westgate street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England.

    Museum number: GLRCM:F03526 (part of the Gloucester Museums museum group)

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