Firebacks

In the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group

53 results

  1. 1140

    va_58.jpg
    610 x 660 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular shape with arch on top; rebated fillet edging; below mirrored putti holding crossed fronds, the figure of St George slaying the dragon; on each side a flame-topped column.

    Notes: The central panel of what would otherwise have been a typical bordered fireback intended for the Dutch market.

    Manufactured: in the mid- to late-17th century in the Siegerland area of Germany.

    Current location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington & Chelsea, London, England.

    Museum number: 797-1899 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

  2. 1227

    va_60.jpg
    ?740 x ?620 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Rectangular shape with ovolo-moulded edging; within the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, a central shield of the arms of Spain: quarterly Castile and Leon, Aragon and Aragon-Sicily, with an escutcheon of Portugal; in base Austria, Burgundy ancient, Burgundy modern and Brabant with an escutcheon of Flanders impaling Tyrol; above, a crown; supporters: two golden lions rampant; below the shield, the date, 1595; above the crown, the inscription: Dominus mihi adiutor (the Lord is my helper).

    Notes: The arms of King Philip II of Spain following the unification with Portugal, as used in the Spanish Netherlands. Part of the bequest to the Victoria and Albert Museum by Lieut. Colonel G. B. Croft-Lyons in 1926.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: DOMINVS MIHI ADIVTOR

    Arms: King Philip II of Spain (Spanish Netherlands)

    Manufactured: in 1595 possibly in the Ardennes area of Belgium.

    Current location: Science Museum, Exhibition Road, Kensington & Chelsea, London, England.

    Museum number: M.624.1926 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

    Citation: Driesch, K. von den , 1990, Handbuch der Ofen-, Kamin- und Takenplatten im Rheinland (Cologne, Rheinland-Verlag).

  3. 1063

    va_e4376-2000.jpg
    ~790 x ~745 mm

    Description: Composite of three elements; central panel has a complex ‘knot’ pattern with a fillet edge; side panel, repeated on either side of the central panel, contains a vase of flowers, possibly stylised thistles, within an arched frame and fillet edge; arched panel above, also with fillet edge, contains the date and inscription; the spandrels of the side panels, and the arched top panel, contain a series of circular motifs comprising concentric rings deepening towards the centre.

    Notes: ‘Knot’ patterns were popular in gardens of the period. The garden theme is continued with the side panels. An example of the same design, noted at Linchmere, West Sussex, is a different casting, the top panel with the date and initials being slightly askew. From a photograph in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; photographed at Mapesbury House, Willesden in 1904.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 1598 / IM IB

    Manufactured: in 1598 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: not known.

    Museum number: E.4376-2000 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)