Firebacks

Rope design firebacks

44 results

  1. 733

    va_09.jpg
    1020 x 650 mm

    Description: Rectangular with canted top corners and a triangular extension from the top edge; twisted rope edges to all sides except bottom; a circular wafering iron or butter mould stamp, incorporating a square design with a fleur-de-lys on each side, repeated thrice, one at the apex and one below each of the canted corners; two inverted ‘V’ rope shapes overlapping to make an ‘M’ below top stamp.

    Notes: The inverted double 'V' may be apotropaic, invoking the protection of the Virgin Mary; the circular stamp has also been noted on a Pelham-associated fireback of 1642 (no. 1204) which may suggest that it was a product of one of the family's ironworks.

    Manufactured: in the late-16th to early-17th century possibly at Waldron Furnace in the Weald area of England.

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

    Museum number: 895.1901 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

    Citation: Easton, T. & Hodgkinson, J. S., 2013, 'Apotropaic Symbols on Cast-Iron Firebacks', Jnl. of the Antique Metalware Soc., 21, pp. 14-33.

    Citation: Hodgkinson, J. S., 2010, British Cast-Iron Firebacks of the 16th to Mid-18th Centuries (Crawley, Hodgers Books).

    Citation: Page, S. & Wallace, M. (eds.), 2018, Spellbound (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum), p. 72.

  2. 1277

    wadhurst,_wenbans_2.jpg
    1075 x 540 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides only); rope diagonally length across each top corner.

    Notes: A very simple rope design seen in several variations on other firebacks.

    Manufactured: in the late-16th to early-17th century in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Wadhurst, East Sussex, England.

  3. 1278

    wadhurst,_wenbans_3.jpg
    905 x 600 mm

    Description: Canted rectangular shape; twisted rope edging (top and sides only; two approximately parallel horizontal lines of twisted rope across the upper centre; from the upper line and starting at the top corners, five regularly-spaced vertical lines of twisted rope extending to the top edge, the centre one with a horizontal rope length formiong a cross.

    Notes: A simple rope design with apotropaic significance.

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

    Current location: in private hands, Wadhurst, East Sussex, England.

  4. 1280

    wadhurst,_wenbans_5.jpg
    1110 x 615 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Canted rectangular shape; twisted rope edging (top and sides); two approximately parallel horizontal lines of twisted rope across the upper centre; from the upper line and starting at the top corners, seven regularly spaced vertical lines of twisted rope extending to the top edge.

    Notes: A simple rope design without apotropaic significance.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Manufactured: in the late-16th to early-17th century possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Wadhurst, East Sussex, England.