Firebacks

Tudor royal armorial (plain) series

  1. 496

    michelham_010.jpg
    810 x 690 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; ovolo moulded edging; plain panel at bottom; Tudor royal shield, garter, crown, motto and supporters (crowned lion and dragon), temp. Elizabeth I; the top of the lion's crown and the dragon's ear overlap the edging.

    Notes: Another version has a rose and portcullis either side of the crown, and the top of the lion's crown and the dragon's ear do not overlap the edging.

    Inscription: [Garter] HONI SOIT QVI MAL E PENSE / [motto] DIEV ET MON DROIT.

    Arms: Tudor royal

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

    Current location: Michelham Priory, Arlington, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: LH000.999 (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).

  2. 977

    unknown_100 800x590.jpg
    800 x 590 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; ovolo moulded edging; Tudor royal shield, garter, crown, motto and supporters (crowned lion and dragon), temp. Elizabeth I; initials in space on either side of top of garter; the top of the lion's crown and the dragon's ear overlap the edging.

    Notes: The initials have been added to an early recasting; another version has a rose and portcullis either side of the crown, and the top of the lion's crown and the dragon's ear do not overlap the edging.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: I G / [Garter] HONI SOIT QVI MAL E PENSE / [motto] DIEV ET MON DROIT

    Arms: Tudor royal

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

    Current location:, not known.

  3. 743

    va_19.jpg
    810 x 600 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; ovolo moulded edging; Tudor royal shield, garter, crown, motto and supporters (crowned lion and dragon), temp. Elizabeth I; the top of the lion's crown and the dragon's ear overlap the edging.

    Notes: Another version has a rose and portcullis either side of the crown, and the top of the lion's crown and the dragon's ear do not overlap the edging; a faint blank rectangular stamp on each side of the crown may have been to hide initials, which have been noted on a variant of this fireback.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: [Garter] HONI SOIT QVI MAL E PENSE / [motto] DIEV ET MON DROIT

    Arms: Tudor royal

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

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

    Museum number: 794.1896 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

  4. 962

    wisborough_green, harsfold farmhouse.jpg
    1010 x 795 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; ovolo moulded edging; Tudor royal shield, garter, crown, motto and supporters (crowned lion and dragon); plain panels at sides and bottom.

    Notes: A common variant has a rose and portcullis either side of the crown, and the top of the lion's crown and the dragon's ear do not overlap the edging; without the extension panels, the approximate dimensions of the main plate are 805mm wide by 590 high. The quality of the relief indicates that this composite fireback was created using an early casting of the armorial back.

    Inscription: [Garter] HONI SOIT QVI MAL E PENSE / [motto] DIEV ET MON DROIT

    Arms: Tudor royal

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

    Current location: in private hands, Wisborough Green, West Sussex, England.