Firebacks

Description: Arched rectangular with broad fillet edges; arched rectangular inset with cavetto edging and armorial design in low relief: circular garter enclosing an ornate Tudor royal shield, surmounted by a crown; date inside top of arch; initials inside top corners of rectangle; a rose in each bottom corner of rectangle; inscription in a separate rectangular panel below, split by garter buckle.

Notes: An altered commercial copy of a Tudor fireback (no. 288) produced by F. Parkin & Sons (Exeter) and advertised in their 1972 catalogue. The width of the edges of the original fireback has been narrowed possibly to reduce weight and cost or for aesthetic reasons.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: 1553 / E R / HONV SOIT QVY MALE V PENCE / MOL LAND

Arms: Tudor royal - Edward VI

Description: Arched rectangular shape, edged with simulated twisted rope between two fillets; in the arch, a shield: argent on a chevron gules three roses of the field, a canton gules for difference; beneath the shield a crest: on a wreath a squirrel sejant gules cracking a nut gules, charged on the shoulder with a cross crosslet gold for difference; inscription split either side of the head of the squirrel.

Notes: A finely modelled and cast modern fireback with the arms and crest of a direct descendant of John Davies Gilbert (1811-54) who had played a major role in the development of the town of Eastbourne and also developed Trelissick Garden in Feock, Cornwall.

Inscription: A.D. 1969

Arms: Gilbert, of Eastbourne, Sussex, and Trelissick, Cornwall