Firebacks

Description: Arched rectangular shape; fillet edging; central male figure clothed in 17th century style, facing to the left, holding a mallet in his raised right hand and holding a board with rectangular detailing in relief in his left hand; vertical boards in relief behind; below to the left, a smaller figure holding a long pole diagonally with other detailing in relief behind; to the lower right, a female figure, contemporaneously clothed, a scroll feature to her right; behind, an archtectural grille with scrolled detailing; above, swagged drapery with three descending tasselled ropes.

Notes: A pastiche of a 17th century fireback. The scene appears to be of a carpenter's workshop but some of the detail in the lower parts of the fireback is indistinct owing to corrosion. The drapery was probably inspired by a similar feature on several late-17th or early-18th century 'Dutch'-style fireback designs. The reverse (upcast) side of the fireback is very smooth indicating a modern date for the casting.

Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto-moulded edging; shield with two cat supporters; above, a baron's coronet; below, a scroll bearing the motto 'Felis Demulcta Mitis'.

Notes: The Brocket barony was created in 1933. The blazon: Quarterly 1st & 4th Argent three salmon haurient Gules in chief an oak tree eradicated Proper (Cain); 2nd & 3rd Per chevron barry of six Gules and Or and of the first in chief two Stags' Heads caboshed proper and in base a Lion rampant guardant of the second (Nall); supporters, two cats guardant erminois. The text of the motto is intaglio.

Inscription: FELIS DEMULCTA MITIS - A stroked cat is gentle

Arms: Nall-Cain, Baron Brocket

Description: Low-arched shape with bevelled edging (top and sides); in each top corner, capital letter 'P' below a stylised earl's coronet, the serif at the foot of the P facing outwards on each side of the fireback.

Notes: Evidently intended to relate to the property of, or commemorating, an earl; the earldom in question has not been identified.

Inscription: P P

Description: Arched rectangular central panel with 'nutshell' over fillet edging; pictorial image of a partially clothed female figure, holding an upraised wreath in her left hand, standing on a ground, with a gadrooned vase containing flowers and leaves to the right, and above swagged drapery and sun rays; arched rectangular fillet border with descending leaves and flowers suspended from a wreath, top centre, and a wreath in each top corner; on top, mirrored sea monsters; bottom centre, logo formed of a pair of dividers in a cartouche between swirling fronds.

Notes: The figure is an allegorical representation of Agriculture, one of the Iconologia originally published by Cesare Ripa in 1613. A modern casting of an early-18th century design (see no. 1325). Copies of this fireback were advertised in Burton Weir's (Rotherham) catalogue in the early-20th century.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Arched rectangular shape: ovolo-moulded edging; pictorial scene of St George in armour, mounted on a horse, spearing a dragon which lies beneath the horse; in each top corner, a rose.

Notes: A portrayal of St George and the Dragon in bold relief that owes something to the famous modelling by Benedetto Pistrucci of 1817; however, the figure of St George is disproportionately large in relation to the horse.

Description: Rectangular; no edging; rough background with 'incised' inscription across top in archaic lettering; central crowned male figure, in Saxon costume, standing astride and facing right, holding a battleaxe to his right in both hands; behind him to the right, a figure wearing a Norman-style helmet with nasal guard, advancing, with a shield, and a sword in his right hand; behind the central figure and to his right, a fallen figure with a circular shield covering him; below, the face of another fallen figure, also wearing a Norman helmet.

Notes: A dramatic pictorial fireback commemorating the Battle of Hastings. The pattern may have been made of a sculpted medium, such as clay.

Inscription: HAROLD REX

Description: Arched rectangular shape; stepped cavetto-moulded edging; shiled, suporters, helm, crest, mantling and motto of Clan MacIntosh

Notes: Blazon: Quarterly, 1st, Or, a lion rampant, Gules, armed and langued, Azure (for MacDuff); 2nd, Argent, a dexter hand, couped, fessways, grasping a man’s heart, paleways, Gules; 3rd, Azure, a boar’s head, couped, armed, Proper, and langued, Gules; 4th, Or, a lymphad, sails furled, Azure, flagged and surmounted of her oars in saltire, Gules (for Clan Chattan). The motto means 'Don't touch the cat without a glove'.

Inscription: TOUCH NOT THE CAT BOT A GLOVE

Arms: Clan MacIntosh