Firebacks

Date & initials firebacks

157 results

  1. 691

    soudley,_dean_heritage_centre_01b.jpg
    678 x 628 mm

    Description: Arched rectangle; arch with egg and dart, ovolo edging, resting on rectangle shoulders and sides with triple fillet edging, a single fillet edged panel beneath; bottom panel, guilloche pattern of 12; main panel: shield, helm, crest, coronet and mantling of the Wynter/Wintour family of Lydney, Gloucestershire; the initials above the date, both split by the helm and coronet; on either side of the shield, Ionic pilasters; above the rectangle shoulders, a scrolled bracket each side, supporting the arch.

    Notes: Wynter: Sable, a fess ermine, in chief a crescent for difference; crest: out of a ducal coronet, or, a cubit arm in armour erect, proper, garnished of the first, in the gauntlet three ostrich-feathers. The arms are likely to be those of Sir John Wynter, who owned several furnaces in the Forest of Dean. Formerly at Watts House, Bishop's Lydeard, Somerset, and before that at The Priory, Taunton.

    Inscription: I W / 16 30

    Arms: Winter/Wintour of Lydney, Gloucestershire

    Manufactured: in 1630 in the Forest of Dean area of England.

    Current location: Horniman Museum, 100 London Road, Forest Hill, London, England.

    Museum number: 6.249 (part of the Horniman Museum museum group)

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

    Citation: Mullin, D., 1989, 'Two Firebacks', The New Regard, Forest of Dean Local History Society, 5, pp. 47-50.

  2. 903

    speldhurst,_george and dragon a.jpg
    1300 x 690 mm

    Description: Rectangular; ovolo-moulded edging (top and sides); date between split initials across upper half of plate; two notches cut away for insertion of firedogs.

    Notes: The ‘6s’ appear to have been moulded from a type of jemmy.

    Inscription: g 1669 P [reversed]

    Manufactured: in 1669 possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: George & Dragon Inn, Speldhurst Hill, Speldhurst, Kent, England.

  3. 959

    staveley_hall.jpg
    ~914 x ~866 mm

    Description: Arched shape; twisted rope edging (top and sides); top centre, shield of impaled arms; date above shield; initials, in triad ('F above), to right of shield.

    Notes: The arms are of Sir Peter Frecheville (1575-1634) of Staveley Hall, Derbyshire, and his first wife, Joyce Osborne, née Fleetwood (d.1619), whom he had married in the year of the fireback's casting; the blazon is as follows: (Frecheville) Azure, a bend between six escallops argent; (Fleetwood) Per pale nebuly or and azure, six martlets, two, two and two counterchanged (the tinctures, as painted, are incorrect). At the bottom of the fireback there appears to be the remains of a runner by which the molten iron flowed into the sand mould.

    Inscription: 1605 / PFI [triad]

    Arms: Frecheville impaling Fleetwood

    Manufactured: in 1605 probably at Staveley Furnace in the Derbyshire area of England.

    Current location: Staveley Hall, Staveley Hall Drive, Staveley, Derbyshire, England.

  4. 694

    stratford,_nashs house 01a.jpg
    >740 x 770 mm

    Description: Arched shape with scrolled side brackets; astragal edging on arch; bipartite design with side pilasters and a central pilaster surmounted by two gothic traceried arches within each of which are two roses and two fleurs-de-lys; below left arch, letter ‘W’ (possibly ‘WY’ monogram) above first half of date; below right arch, shield bearing arms of the Borough of Stratford-upon-Avon above second half of date.

    Notes: The combination of the monogram and the arms of Stratford suggest an individual with a formal office within the borough; a mixture of Gothic and Classical elements; damage to bottom right side.

    Inscription: W [Y?] / 15 85

    Arms: Borough of Stratford-upon-Avon

    Manufactured: in 1585 in England.

    Current location: Nash's House, Chapel Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England.

    (part of the Shakespeare's Birthplace Trust museum group)

  5. 695

    stratford,_nashs house 02.jpg
    ? x ? mm

    Description: Rectangular; fillet edging (top and sides only); top centre, date formed of individual letter stamps; below date, initials carved as single stamp, overstamped and showing v-shaped extension below.

    Notes: The reason for the unusual shape of the base of the initial stamp is not understood.

    Inscription: 1616 / WC

    Manufactured: in 1616 in England.

    Current location: Nash's House, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England.

    (part of the Shakespeare's Birthplace Trust museum group)

  6. 1136

    swansea,_national museum of wales 01a.jpg
    >720 x >465 mm

    Description: Fragment; rectangular; twisted rope edging; top centre, date [1]647; top right, initials FAB in triad, A below F and B.

    Notes: The initials were probably mirrored on the left side. Acquired from a location at Tintern, Monmouthshire. A fireback of near identical design and provenance was noted by David Bick at Poolway House, Coleford, Gloucestershire (Gloucs. Archives D9104).

    Inscription: 647 FAB [triad]

    Manufactured: in 1647 probably at Tintern Furnace in the Forest of Dean area of Wales.

    Current location: National Museum Wales, National Collections Centre, Heol Crochendy, Parc Nantgarw, Nantgarw, Glamorgan, Wales.

    Museum number: 73.25I (part of the National Museum Wales museum group)

  7. 1167

    tennants_auctioneers_20_mar_2015_lot_781.jpg
    700 x ~435 mm

    Description: Canted quasi-rectangular shape; no edging; parallel with top edge, initials in triad to left, separated from date by a small, ill-defined flower stamp.

    Notes: The serifed character set is boldly impressed, although the S is indistinct, suggesting that some of the moulding sand may have filled the impression before casting. The indentations on each side were cut to accommodate mouldings. Tennants Auctioneers sale, Leyburn, North Yorkshire, 20 March 2015, lot 781.

    Inscription: ISM [triad] 1611

    Manufactured: in 1611 in England.

    Current location:, England.

  8. 860

    terry_sparks 02a.jpg
    695 x 490 mm

    Description: Canted rectangle; fillet edging (top and sides); top centre, initials, above date, between repeated fleur-de-lys stamp; from top corners to bottom corners, repeated V-shape pattern formed of stamped short fillets, with an L-shape inserted between the top two Vs on each side.

    Notes: The fleurs de lys are of a distinctive style seen on a small group of firebacks.

    Inscription: RH / 1662

    Manufactured: in 1662 in the Forest of Dean area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Checkendon, Oxfordshire, England.

  9. 1258

    tetbury,_31_long_street_870x500.jpg
    ~870 x 500 mm

    Description: Broken and fragmentary; canted quasi-rectangular shape, with sides inclined; twisted rope edging; top centre, date with initials below separated by a fleur-de-lys; seven fleurs-de-lys down each side, pints perpendicular to rope edging; a fleur beneath each initial, possibly other fleurs and another initial missing in between.

    Notes: The fleurs-de-lys are of a distinctive form apparently unique to this series of firebacks.

    Inscription: 1628 / S G

    Manufactured: in 1628 in the Forest of Dean area of England.

    Current location: 31 Long Street, Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England.

  10. 1091

    thornbury,_the freeth.jpg
    ~1000 x ~700 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; twisted rope edging (top and sides); date in arch; initials in triads in top corners.

    Notes: A fireback at Cotehele House in Cornwall, dated 1647 and bearing the initials AA, which may have come from Longden Hall, south-west of Shrewsbury in Shropshire, and was purchased by the National Trust from Longden Parish Council in the early 1970s, is similar in both its shape and style

    Inscription: 1655 / RWA [triad] / RWA [triad]

    Manufactured: in 1655 in England.

    Current location: The Freeth, Thornbury, Herefordshire, England.

    Citation: Royal Commission on Historical Monuments of England, 1932, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Herefordshire, Volume 2: East (London, HMSO).