Firebacks

In the National Trust museum group

127 results

  1. 1094

    smallhythe_place 02.jpg
    1143 x 558 mm

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); top centre, crowned Tudor royal shield between a lion passant on the right and a lion passant guardant sinister on the left; in each top corner a crowned four-petal rose, below which, to the right, a left-facing 'imp' with both arms lowered; below the armorial, a crowned shield bearing initials, KH, in Lombardic lettering, above a fleur-de-lys; a much-corroded imp figure may be below the right-hand lion.

    Notes: A heavily corroded variant of a type bearing Henrician heraldic elements.

    Arms: Tudor royal arms of England

    Manufactured: in the mid-16th century in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Smallhythe Place, Small Hythe Road, Tenterden, Kent, England.

    Museum number: 1117950 (part of the National Trust museum group)

  2. 690

    smallhythe_place.jpg
    1280 x 470 mm

    Description: Canted rectangle; plain edges; broad horizontal fillet dividing the plate in two just above the side angles, with vertical fillets to top corners enclosing date and initials.

    Notes: Uncharacteristically crude for the period.

    Inscription: IS / 16 60

    Manufactured: in 1660 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Smallhythe Place, Small Hythe Road, Tenterden, Kent, England.

    Museum number: 1117951 (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).

  3. 873

    welshpool,_powis castle 01.jpg
    660 x 640 mm

    Description: Arched shape; fillet edging; shield, supporters, earl's coronet and motto.

    Notes: The arms are those of William Herbert (1626-96), created 1st Earl of Powis in 1674, impaled with those of his wife, Lady Elizabeth Somerset, whom he had married in 1654. He was created Marquess in 1687, so the fireback dates from between 1674 and 1687. The blazon: Party per pale azure and gules three lions rampant argent armed and langued or (Herbert), quarterly 1st and 4th England 2nd and 3rd France Modern (Somerset); Supporters: Dexter: A Panther rampant guardant Argent spotted of various colours fire issuing out of the mouth and ears ducally gorged Azure; Sinister: A Lion rampant Argent ducally gorged Gules; Motto: Ung je serviray (One I will serve).

    Inscription: Ung iay serviray

    Arms: William Herbert, 1st Earl of Powis

    Manufactured: in the late-17th century .

    Current location: Powis Castle, Welshpool, Powys, Wales.

    Museum number: 1180869 (part of the National Trust museum group)

    Citation: Anon., 1907, 'Armorial iron fire back', Montgomeryshire Collections, 34, p. 212.

    Citation: Powis, Earl of, 1940, 'Notes on the Gates, Terraces and Firebacks at Powis Castle', Montgomeryshire Collections, 46, 2, pp. 194-195.

  4. 300

    welshpool,_powis_castle_02.jpg
    ?610 x ?840 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shaped central panel with bead-and-pellet edging on a broad fillet; Jupiter in his chariot drawn by eagles; above are clouds, below is a landscape; arched rectangular shaped border with fillet edging, with a symmetrical scrolled wire design; the monogram, SHR, bottom centre; above is a symmetrical design of scrolled floral tendrils.

    Notes: The design is derived from a personification of the planet, Jupiter, in 'Planetarum effectus et eorum in signis zodiaci', by Marten de Vos (1585).

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: SHR

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

    Current location: Powis Castle, Welshpool, Powys, Wales.

    Museum number: 1180886 (part of the National Trust museum group)

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

    Citation: Gardner, J. S., 1898, 'Iron Casting in the Weald', Archaeologia, 56, 1, pp. 133-164.

  5. 787

    westerham,_quebec house 02a.jpg
    1220 x 1010 mm

    Description: Rectangular with an arched rectangular style arch linked by symmetrical cyma curves; double moulded edges except on the base; the date, 1720, in characteristic lettering of the early 18th century, bisected by a shield and crest formed from the impression of a carved wooden stamp. The arms are probably those of a branch of the Harvey family: a chevron (gules) between three bear’s gambs erased and erect armed (ermines).

    Notes: The Harvey family of Eythorne, Kent, bore similar, but not identical arms, differenced by the addition of three crescents on the chevron. There are stylistic similarities between this fireback and two firebacks bearing the arms of the Duke of Dorset at Knole, which are probably of similar date, suggesting that they could be products of the same furnace.

    Inscription: 17 20

    Arms: Harvey of Eythorne, Kent (variant)

    Manufactured: in 1720 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Quebec House, Westerham, Kent, England.

    Museum number: 529003 (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).

  6. 786

    westerham_quebec house 01.jpg
    1180 x 713 mm

    Description: Rectangular; edging on top and sides formed from four impressions of a length of wooden moulding approx. 600mm long, rebated at the right end, and overlapped starting on the right. Within are 14 impressions of a fleur de lys, arranged in three horizontal rows (5-4-5), carefully spaced with the middle stamp on the bottom row slightly out of line with the others. The edging does not reach the bottom of the plate, which is left plain.

    Notes: Here is the distinctive use of wooden moulding salvaged from another use, possibly furniture, the moulded end of the sections suggesting that it might have come from a corner; the style of fleur de lys is one of three encountered on firebacks in this series.

    Manufactured: in the mid- to late-16th century possibly at Pounsley Furnace, Framfield in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Quebec House, Westerham, Kent, England.

    Museum number: 528987.1 (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).

  7. 794

    winchelsea,_wickham manor 05.jpg
    680 x 704 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; probable ovolo-moulded edging; Stuart royal arms of England (quarterly, 1st and 4th, France and England, 2nd Scotland and 3rd Ireland) with garter, crown, crest, motto and supporters.

    Notes: A poor recasting, obscuring most of the detail.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: [illegible]

    Arms: English Stuart royal

    Manufactured: in the 17th century in England.

    Current location: Wickham Manor Farm, Winchelsea, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: NT/WMF/M/031 (part of the National Trust museum group)