Firebacks

Date only firebacks

28 results

  1. 203

    birmingham,_selly hall 02.jpg
    830 x 700 mm

    Description: Rectangular; fillet edging; fillet parallel to top edge separating top quarter; two fillets parallel to sides separating side quarters; halves of date in top corner squares.

    Notes: Numeral style is typical of first half of 18th century.

    Inscription: 17 36

    Manufactured: in 1736 in England.

    Current location: Selly Manor, Birmingham, West Midlands, England.

    (part of the Selly Manor museum group)

  2. 971

    bristol,_red lodge museum 01a.jpg
    600 x 520 mm

    Description: Canted rectangle; fillet edging (top and sides); top centre, date between two 'rose' stamps.

    Notes: The four nuts are to secure the fireback to two legs.

    Inscription: 1658

    Manufactured: in 1658 in England.

    Current location: Red Lodge, Park Row, Bristol, England.

    Museum number: NX412 (part of the Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives museum group)

  3. 973

    bristol,_red lodge museum 03.jpg
    485 x 405 mm

    Description: Canted rectangle; fillet edging (top and sides); date to full width across centre of plate.

    Notes: Bold, evenly-spaced numerals.

    Inscription: 1688

    Manufactured: in 1688 in England.

    Current location: Red Lodge, Park Row, Bristol, England.

    Museum number: NX1064 (part of the Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives museum group)

  4. 1000

    broadway,_ashmolean museum 02.jpg
    1285 x 692 mm

    Description: Canted rectangle; stepped fillet edging (top and sides); straight twisted rope lengths parallel to top and parallel to each side, forming inner rectangle with rope quadrants across top corners; side compartments: line of 12 beads along top inside rope line, 3 semi-circular at corners, with a single bead in each corner quadrant, and 8 down each side; top centre, date with single bead above; cross with a cross stamp repeated 10 times to right of date and 9 time to left, one in each corner, and 13 down the left side and 12 down the right.

    Notes: The arc shape and use of repeated beads suggests a common source with other firebacks of the same period.

    Inscription: 1686

    Manufactured: in 1686 in the Forest of Dean area of England.

    Current location: Ashmolean Museum Broadway, 65 High Street, Broadway, Worcestershire, England.

    (part of the Ashmolean Museum museum group)

  5. 1022

    burford,_tolsey museum a.jpg
    685 x 535 mm

    Description: Rectangular, with double fillet edging (top and sides); fillets parallel to top and to each side, dividing the plate into two square corner panels and narrow rectangular panels along top and down each side; fillet arc across inside top corners; date split between top corners, divided by vertical fillets, and separated by a hollow saltire stamp repeated six times; one hollow saltire, with a central bead, between each corner arc; eight similar saltire stamps down each side panel; 27 'daisy heads' arranged regularly around outer edge of central panel, with five saltires arranged in a cross shape in the centre.

    Notes: The arc shape and use of repeated 'daisy heads' suggests a common source with other firebacks of the same period; the poor definition is due to insufficient impression at the moulding stage.

    Inscription: 17 02

    Manufactured: in 1702 in the Forest of Dean area of England.

    Current location: Tolsey Museum, 126 High Street, Burford, Oxfordshire, England.

    (part of the Tolsey Museum, Burford museum group)

  6. 235

    cardiff,_st fagans 12.jpg
    750 x 645 mm

    Description: Fragment; canted rectangle; twisted rope edging (top and sides); repeated scroll strip stamp along each side; date, top centre; a fleur-de-lys stamp repeated three times vertically down left side, probably mirrored on right side (top fleur visible).

    Notes: Use of the same stamps indicates a common source with a variant dated 1692 (see Fireback no. 237).

    Inscription: 1694

    Manufactured: in 1694 possibly in the South Wales area of Wales.

    Current location: National History Museum, St Fagans, Glamorgan, Wales.

    Museum number: 61.49/3 (part of the Welsh National History Museum museum group)

  7. 245

    charlton_mackrell, lytes cary.jpg
    470 x 490 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shaped with narrow shoulders; fillet edging; date in individual numerals across arch.

    Notes: A larger version is different in the spacing of the numerals and the proportions of the plate. For another casting of this fireback see J. Every Collection catalogue no. 20 (Sussex Archaeological Society library, Barbican House, Lewes, Sussex).

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 1658

    Manufactured: in 1658 possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Lytes Cary Manor, Charleton Mackrell, Somerset, England.

    Museum number: NT/LYT/M/40 (part of the National Trust museum group)

  8. 270

    dorchester_museum 01.jpg
    838 x 314 mm

    Description: Rectangular; cyma recta moulded edging; centre top, date formed of individual stamps.

    Notes: The moulding used for the edging, which was probably derived from redundant furniture, is very similar to that used on several firebacks of a similar style in the late 17th century, although the lettering style is different. Although its small height suggests that this may only be the top half of a fireback, the existence of a plate of similar dimensions in Brighton Museum may indicate that the proportions were deliberate.

    Inscription: 1728

    Manufactured: in 1728 in England.

    Current location: Dorset County Museum, Dorchester, Dorset, England.

    (part of the Dorset County Museum museum group)

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

  9. 1085

    faversham_930x620.jpg
    930 x 620 mm

    Description: Rectangular; rebated ovolo-moulded edging (top, left and half-right sides); top centre, date with unevenly positioned numerals.

    Notes: The asymmetry of the side moulding is unusual.

    Inscription: 1667

    Manufactured: in 1667 possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Faversham, Kent, England.

  10. 1006

    halls_(shrewsbury), lot 127 28 oct 2015.jpg
    1280 x 660 mm

    Description: Rectangular shape with twisted rope edging (top and sides); date split between top corners.

    Notes: The central button on the number 1 is consistent with a date in the first half of the seventeenth century.

    Inscription: 16 37

    Manufactured: in 1637 possibly in the Shropshire area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Wigmore, Herefordshire, England.