Firebacks

Description: Arched plate; ovolo moulding edging; shield, supporters, coronet, helm, crest and motto of Viscount Montague; quarterly Browne, Albini, Fitzalan, Fitzalan of Clare, Warren, Maltravers, Nevill, Montagu, Monthermer, Inglethorpe, Burghe, Delapole, Bradeston, Tiptoft, Charleton and Kent (Plantagenet); supporters: two bears collared and chained; the crest: an eagle, the wings elevated and displayed.

Notes: The arms of either the 2nd (Anthony-Maria Browne, succ. 1592-1629) or 3rd viscount (Francis Browne succ. 1629-1682) - the 1st viscount was a Knight of the Garter and no garter is shown; the style of the modelling bears similarities to that on the 1618 series of firebacks and may be the work of the same pattern-maker.

Inscription: 16 / VERITATE DUCE [Be led by Truth]

Arms: Viscount Montague

Description: Arched rectangle; dentil ovolo-moulded edging; shield, supporters, coronet, helm, crest, mantling and motto of Viscount Montague; quarterly Browne, Albini, Fitzalan, Fitzalan of Clare, Warren, Maltravers, Nevill, Montagu, Monthermer, Inglethorpe, Burghe, Delapole, Bradeston, Tiptoft, Charleton and Kent (Plantagenet); supporters: two bears collared and chained; the crest: an eagle, the wings elevated and displayed.

Notes: The arms of either the 2nd (Anthony-Maria Browne, succ. 1592-1629) or 3rd viscount (Francis Browne succ. 1629-1682) - the 1st viscount was a Knight of the Garter and no garter is shown.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: VERITATE DUCE [Be led by Truth]

Arms: Viscount Montague

Description: Rectangular; plain plate with shield, supporters, ducal coronet, motto and garter of the Duke of Dorset: Quarterly, Or and gules, a bend vair.

Notes: Almost certainly the arms of Lionel Sackville KG (1688-1765), created first duke of Dorset in 1720. This particular design of fireback has been produced in a variety of sizes depending on the space around the achievement of arms

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE / AUT NUNQUAM TENTES, AUT PERFICE [Either do not attempt, or complete]

Arms: Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset

Description: Arched shape; patterned astragal edging; central shield with helm, crest and mantling above, and motto scroll below; initials either side of crest; date split by shield.

Notes: The arms are those of Chamberlayne: gules, an inescutcheon within an orle of mullets argent; the crest: out of a ducal coronet the head of an ass (the tinctures vary according to the branch of the family); the initials are reputed to be those of Thomas Chamberlayne; the date appears to have been hand inscribed. The style of the carving is the same as on two other firebacks in the same county.

Inscription: T C / 16 18 / [motto unreadable]

Arms: Chamberlayne

Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging on top and sides; cavetto-moulded-edged rectangle top centre (left side missing), enclosing date between initials; 14 shields of Ayloffe impaling Sulyard in three rows (5-4-5); Ayloffe: sable, a lion rampant Or, collared gules, between three crosses formy of the second; Sulyard: argent, a chevron gules between three pheons inverted sable.

Notes: William Ayloffe (c1535-1584) of Bretons, Hornchurch, Essex, Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench, married (c1560) Jane, dau. of Sir Eustace Sulyard, of Runwell, Essex. The initials 'CT' are likely to be those of Charles Tyler, a founder whose working life and that of his family have strong parallels with the occurrence of these firebacks. The excrescences between some of the shields are the result of inexpert ladling of the iron during casting.

Inscription: C.1.6.1.2.T

Arms: Ayloffe impaling Sulyard (William Ayloffe of Bretons, Hornchurch)

Description: Rectangular; cavetto-moulded edging (top and sides); date, in s florid style, split between top corners; central oval shield of impaled arms surmounted by a crest of a lion's head erased upon a wreath.

Notes: George Worge (1705-65), of Starr’s Green, Battle, steward of the Battle Abbey estate, married Elizabeth (1707-67), daughter of John Collier, town clerk of Hastings, in 1727. The arms of Worge have been variously blazoned, but the memorial to George Worge in Battle church indicates these tinctures: gules, a fess cotised or, in chief three lion’s heads erased of the last; Collier - argent, on a chevron azure, between three unicorns courant couped gules, as many oak sprigs fructed proper. The arms and crest in the same form can be seen on a fireback with an elaborate border (no. 757).

Inscription: 17 62

Arms: Worge impaling Collier (George and Elizabeth Worge)

Description: Low-arched rectangular shape; cavetto-moulded edging (top and sides); top centre, shield, crest and motto of William Wood (1806-88), Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway.

Notes: The blazon: Per chevron Argent and Or, a chevron counter-embattled between three mullets gules; crest: a talbot's head erased Or; motto: Semper Vigilans - Always Vigilant.

Inscription: SEMPER VIGILANS

Arms: William Wilson, Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway

Description: Plain rectangular shield with sloping edges; shield helm and crest of Sir Weetman Pearson Bt.: Per fess indented gules and or, between two suns in splendour in chief an escutcheon bearing a baronet's badge, and a demi-gryphon couped wings elevated and addorsed in base all counterchanged; crest: in front of a demi-gryphon as in the arms, holding between the claws a mill-stone proper, thereon a mill-rind sable, a sun in splendour.

Notes: Sir Weetman Pearson, later Viscount Cowdray, was created Baronet in 1894 and Baron in 1910, the fireback thus dates from the period 1894-1910. The motto - Do it with thy might - is from Ecclesiates 9: 10.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: DO IT WITH THY MIGHT

Arms: Sir Weetman Pearson Bt

Description: Rectangular; simulated twisted rope edging; top centre, shield, baron's coronet, supporters and crest; in each top corner, heraldic badge - a Sea Lion holding an anchor.

Notes: The arms are of Sir Hudson Ewbanke Kearley, Bt., 1st Baron Devonport (1856-1934); created 1910, he was elevated to Viscount in 1917, thus the fireback would have been cast between 1910 and 1917. Blazon: Azure in chief two Mitres Argent garnished Or and in base a Square Tower of the second, a baronet's badge in chief; Supporters: On either side a Sea Lion Argent crined finned and tufted Or each gorged with a Collar Gules charged with three Roses of the second and each supporting a Spear erect proper; Crest: An Ancient Ship Or the Mainsail Azure charged with a Sea Lion of the first; Motto: Fit Via Vi (The way is made through strength). A version with the same arms and badges has an arched rectangular shape and plain edging.

Inscription: FIT VIA VI

Arms: Hudson Ewbanke Kearley, 1st Baron Devonport (later 1st Viscount)

Description: Arch-shaped, with rounded-arched extension at top; cavetto moulded edge all round; five vertical planklines; arms of the Francis (or Franceis) family of Derbyshire: Argent a Chevron gules between three Eagles displayed of the same; Crest: an eagle displayed on a crowned knight’s helm; initials in bottom corners; date below shield.

Notes: Probably the arms of Sir Edward Francis, who was Seneschal of the Petworth House estate and took overall charge in 1606 when the 9th Earl of Northumberland was committed to the Tower of London for his alledged involvement in the Gunpowder Plot.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: E 1606 F

Arms: Sir Edward Francis