Firebacks

Bergavenny firebacks

  1. 242

    chailey,_woodbrooks farm 02.jpg
    675 x 625 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shaped; astragal edging; shield bearing a saltire, beneath a baron’s coronet; date and initials split by shield.

    Notes: The shield, coronet and initials may be those of George Nevill, 12th Baron Bergavenny (1665-95); the Neville arms has a rose in the centre but if the shield were a painted carving, the rose may have been painted and not carved.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 16 72 / G B

    Arms: George Nevill, 12th baron Bergavenny

    Manufactured: in 1672 possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Fulham, London, England.

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

  2. 392

    lewes,_sussex arch soc 026.jpg
    905 x 740 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto moulding on all sides, with short gaps at each end of the base (possibly to accommodate firedogs); date in top corners; shield, supporters, coronet and motto of the Barony of Bergavenny: Gules, on a saltire argent, a rose of the field, barbed and seeded proper. The motto, ‘Ne vile velis’ (Wish nothing base) is a pun on the family name.

    Notes: The arms are those of William Nevill, 16th Baron Bergavenny, of Kidbrooke Park, Forest Row, Sussex. The date of the fireback coincides with the completion of the mansion. Formerly part of the J. H. Every collection.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 1736 / NE VILE VELIS

    Arms: William Nevill, 16th Baron Bergavenny

    Manufactured: in 1736 in the Weald area of England.

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

    Museum number: 1944.24.086 (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).

    Citation: Hughes, G. B., 21 Apr 1955, 'Old English Firebacks', Country Life, 117, pp. 1056-60.

  3. 819

    unknown_32 760x660.jpg
    760 x 660 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto moulding (top and sides); date in top corners; shield, supporters, coronet and motto of the Barony of Bergavenny.

    Notes: The arms are those of William Nevill, 16th Baron Bergavenny, of Kidbrooke Park, Forest Row, Sussex; the arms have been modified by the omission of the motto below the compartment.

    Inscription: 17 37

    Arms: William Nevill, 16th Baron Bergavenny

    Manufactured: in 1737 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Greenham, Somerset, England.

  4. 778

    waldron,_heronsdale.jpg
    1450 x ?1120 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto/cyma recta moulded edging; plain rectangular panels at sides; top centre, bull’s head and neck issuing from a marquesal coronet, a baronial coronet above.

    Notes: The crest of the Barons Bergavenny, although it should issue from a ducal, rather than a marchesal, coronet, and the rose normally placed on the neck is missing. The carved crest was affixed to a board of similar shape but smaller dimensions to the board with the moulded edging, indicating that the moulded board could have been used for other firebacks. Believed to have formerly been at Maresfield Park, Sussex.

    Manufactured: in the early-18th century in the Weald area of England.

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

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