Firebacks

Royalist series

  1. 1336

    barnsley_museum.jpg
    ~762 x ~686 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto moulded edging; garter enclosing Stuart royal arms, with supporters, crown and motto; date split either side of garter buckle; rectangular extension panel at bottom.

    Notes: An altered casting from a 1641 original (no. 445). With the exception of the '1' in the date, the numerals have been substituted. From the detail of the relief, probably an early casting. Formerly in the Old Moot Hall, Barnsley.

    Inscription: C R / HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE / 16 64 / DIEV ET MON DROIT

    Arms: English Stuart royal

    Manufactured: in 1660 in England.

    Current location: Barnsley Museum & Discovery Centre, Town Hall, Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England.

  2. 399

    bridgewater_collection 10.jpg
    750 x 655 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; ovolo-moulded edging with inverted fleur-de-lys at top; lion passant guardant, with rose to the left and thistle above tail; date split between legs; single horizontal plank-line.

    Notes: The boldness of the figuration suggests association with firebacks possibly cast at Brede Furnace in the same period.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 1 6 5 6

    Manufactured: in 1656 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: not known.

  3. 445

    lewes,_sussex arch soc 085.jpg
    764 x 600 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto moulded edging; garter enclosing Stuart royal arms, with supporters, crown and motto; date split either side of garter buckle.

    Notes: The style of the numerals is very similar to those on a plate bearing a lion, dated 1656, and is likely to be the work of the same pattern-maker; a variant (no. 253) has a substituted date of 1664.

    Inscription: C R / 16 41

    Arms: English Stuart royal

    Manufactured: in 1641 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Anne of Cleves House, Southover High Street, Lewes, East Sussex, England.

    (part of the Sussex Archaeological Society museum group)

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

  4. 1337

    penistone,_nabbs_hall.jpg
    ~762 x ~686 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto moulded edging; garter enclosing Stuart royal arms, with supporters, crown and motto; date split either side of garter buckle; rectangular extension panel at bottom.

    Notes: An altered casting from a 1641 original (no. 445). With the exception of the '1' in the date, the numerals have been replaced. From the detail of the relief, probably an early casting.

    Inscription: C R / HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE / 16 64 / DIEV ET MON DROIT

    Arms: English Stuart royal

    Manufactured: in 1674 in England.

    Current location: in private hands, Penistone, South Yorkshire, England.

  5. 253

    unknown_65 762 x 686.jpg
    762 x 686 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto moulded edging; garter enclosing Stuart royal arms, with supporters, crown and motto; date split either side of garter buckle; rectangular extension panel at bottom.

    Notes: An altered casting from a 1641 original (no. 445), the last part of the date having disproportionate numerals; often copied. From the detail of the relief, probably an early casting. Inferior copies of this fireback were advertised in Kings Worthy Foundry's (Winchester) catalogue in the mid-20th century.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: C R / HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE / 16 64 / DIEV ET MON DROIT

    Arms: English Stuart royal

    Manufactured: in 1664 possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: not known.

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