Firebacks

De Vos Planets series

  1. 327

    horsham_museum 05.jpg
    560 x 810 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular shaped central panel with open-bud edging; pictorial: Venus in her chariot drawn by doves, with her child, Cupid; a heron flies away to the left; above are swagged curtains and a pair of tassels, below is a landscape; arched rectangular shaped border with fillet edging, a scallop shell top centre with symmetrical arrangement of vine and acanthus leaves and tendrils; the monogram, SHR, bottom centre; above is a symmetrical design of scrolled floral tendrils.

    Notes: The design is derived from a personification of the planet Venus in 'Planetarum effectus et eorum in signis zodiaci', by Marten de Vos (1585); the flying heron has been copied from a print by Wenceslaus Hollar c.1658. The theft, in 1699, from a Thames-side warehouse of several firebacks, included '6 of Venus in a Chariot with Doves', which is likely to refer to this type (Post Boy 11-14 Nov. 1699).

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: SHR

    Manufactured: in the late-17th century in England.

    Current location: Horsham Museum, Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex, England.

    (part of the Horsham Museum museum group)

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

  2. 325

    horsham_museum_01a.jpg
    620 x 897 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular shaped central panel with bead-and-pellet edging on a broad fillet; Jupiter in his chariot drawn by eagles; above are clouds, below is a landscape; arched rectangular shaped border with fillet edging, with a symmetrical scrolled wire design; the monogram, SHR, bottom centre; above is a symmetrical design of scrolled floral tendrils.

    Notes: The design is probably adapted from a personification of the planet, Jupiter, in 'Planetarum effectus et eorum in signis zodiaci', by Marten de Vos (1585).

    Inscription: SHR

    Manufactured: in the late-17th to early-18th century in England.

    Current location: Horsham Museum, Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex, England.

    (part of the Horsham Museum museum group)

  3. 1131

    milton_common,_three_pigeons_02b.jpg
    510 x 775 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shaped central panel with 'nutshell' edging; pictorial: Mercury in his chariot drawn by two birds (possibly ravens) across the clouds, his caduceus held aloft; above are clouds, below is a landscape with plants; arched rectangular shaped border with fillet edging, a scallop shell top centre with descending symmetrical arrangement of vine and acanthus leaves and tendrils; the monogram, SHR, bottom centre; on top is a symmetrical design of scrolled floral tendrils. One vertical plankline right of centre.

    Notes: The design is based on a personification of the planet Mercury in 'Planetarum effectus et eorum in signis zodiaci', by Marten de Vos (1585). The holes were for fixing to a grate.

    Inscription: SHR

    Manufactured: in the late-17th to early-18th century in England.

    Current location: not known.

  4. 300

    welshpool,_powis_castle_02.jpg
    ?610 x ?840 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular shaped central panel with bead-and-pellet edging on a broad fillet; Jupiter in his chariot drawn by eagles; above are clouds, below is a landscape; arched rectangular shaped border with fillet edging, with a symmetrical scrolled wire design; the monogram, SHR, bottom centre; above is a symmetrical design of scrolled floral tendrils.

    Notes: The design is derived from a personification of the planet, Jupiter, in 'Planetarum effectus et eorum in signis zodiaci', by Marten de Vos (1585).

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: SHR

    Manufactured: in the late-17th to early-18th century in England.

    Current location: Powis Castle, Welshpool, Powys, Wales.

    Museum number: 1180886 (part of the National Trust museum group)

    Citation: Dawson, C., 1903, 'Sussex Iron Work and Pottery', Sussex Archaeological Collections, 46, pp. 1-54.

    Citation: Gardner, J. S., 1898, 'Iron Casting in the Weald', Archaeologia, 56, 1, pp. 133-164.