Firebacks

Description: Arched rectangular central panel with overlapping leaf edging; pictorial scene of Poseidon/Neptune holding a trident in this right hand, and grasping the reins of two hippocampi in his left hand; beneath his feet a scallop shell, and to his lower left a putto blowing a horn; suspended above him an assemblage of shells; stepped-arched rectangular shaped border with scalloped fillet edging; top centre, scallop shell with a descending arrangment of seashells and seaweed; on top, a scallop shell between two putti and below them, two dolphins.

Notes: An uncharacteristically elaborate version of the usual 'Dutch' style of fireback, suggesting a later date, or possibly a pastiche.

Description: Arched rectangular central panel with bead edging; pictorial scene of Venus, naked and kneeling, and Adonis, standing, holding a spear in his left hand, with Cupid to the left, and a hound and a quiver of arrows below to the right; arched rectangular border with fillet edging; at top of arch, grape bunches; at each side, a festoon of fruit suspended on a ribbon from a lion's head; at the bottom, an oval cartouche between flowers; on top, an urn from which descends a dolphin on each side of the arch.

Notes: The scene is based on the painting (c.1635) of Venus and Adonis by Peter Paul Rubens; the same central panel is known with several different borders.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Arched rectangular shape; fillet edging; top centre, stamp formed of a carved domestic scene of a family around a table; in top corners, repeated small stamp of St George and the Dragon; below, repeated stamp of a pineapple in a pot; centre; small stamp of the royal arms of the United Kingdom 1801-37.

Notes: The domestic group has been formed from a decorative iron mantelpiece ornament portraying the tale of the goose that laid golden eggs. Having killed the goose, the family are lamenting the loss of their bounty (see Ames, 1980, p.94). The same mantelpiece group and pineapple stamp can be seen as decoration on the kitchen spit assemblage at Petworth House, West Sussex, which was cast at Robert Chorley's foundry at Cocking, south of Midhurst. Evidently this and another fireback bearing the same ornament stamp were among items from the Cowdray estate sold in 1898.

Arms: Royal arms of the United Kingdom 1801-37

Description: Arched rectangle with crude scalloping around the edges; elaborate, symmetrical strapwork frame with scrolls top left and right, and below, a bunch of grapes hanging from the top, and the head and forelegs of a goat climbing through; inside each upper scroll, a small astragel edged oval.

Notes: The strapwork, a distinctive feature of Elizabethan design, was probably derived from redundant furniture. Marks round the edge of this fireback suggest that it may have been reduced from a larger size.

Description: Quasi-arched rectangular shape with symmetrical double fillet rococo edging; high relief pictorial battle scene with mounted knights carrying lances and pennants.

Notes: The battle scene may have been inspired by more than one classical portayal of a battle in history; likely sources are 'The Defeat of the Pisans at the Tower of St Vicenzo' by Giorgio Vasari and 'Alexander the Great's crossing of the Granicus' by Charles Le Brun. An engraving by Daniel Kellerthaler (1574-1648) has a similar frame enclosing an unidentified cavalry conflict.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Rectangular; flanged edging; main panel, pictorial scene of Adam and Eve with, between them, the Tree of Life, bearing fruit, entwined by a serpent; bottom panel indistinct.

Notes: A much worn plate.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto edging; Stuart royal arms of England (quarterly, 1st and 4th, France and England, 2nd Scotland and 3rd Ireland) with garter, crown, motto and supporters; initials either side of crown base.

Notes: As in others of this series the design overlaps the edging.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: C R / ...SOIT QVI MAL Y ...

Arms: English Stuart royal

Description: Arched rectangular central panel; bead-on-fillet edging; wickerwork Garden of Holland (Hollandse Tuin) within which is seated a berobed female figure holding a cap of freedom on the end of a long pole; before her is the crowned heraldic lion of the States General of the Netherlands, clutching a sheaf of arrows in its left front paw; above are the words, Pro Patria; arched rectangular border with cavetto-moulded edging, with the word, Hollandia, in the arch, suspended from which are festoons of flowers and fruit and the date within a scroll on the bottom; on top, a scallop shell between two mirrored serpents.

Notes: An overtly patriotic theme with symbols of Dutch nationhood.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: HOLLANDIA / PRO PATRIA / ANNO 1662

Description: Arched rectangular shape; bead-on-fillet edging; in a garden of ground, a tree and a tall plant in a pot, the standing figure of a young person blowing a pipe, two sheep or goats behind; arched rectangular border with ovolo-moulded edging; symmetrical arrangement of scrolled foliage; on top, a scallop shell with a descending dolphin on each side of the arch.

Notes: The scene may be allegorical or purely representational.

Description: Rectangular central panel with bead edging all round, pictorial scene of a landscape at the fore of which Jesus sits at a well with the woman of Samaria; above the panel is a bead-edged arch with a floral wreath; arched rectangular border with canted top corners and cavetto-moulded edging; repeated low-relief pattern of linked squares and diamonds; at the bottom, indistinct floral swirls; on top, a small crown with descending mirrored swirls.

Notes: The scene is from John 4.