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665
Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (probably on on top and sides only); cavetto-moulded-edged rectangle top centre, enclosing date between initials; 14 shields of Ayloffe impaling Sulyard in three rows (5-4-5).
Notes: 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. William Ayloffe (c1535-1584) of Hornchurch, Essex, Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench, married (c1560) Jane, dau. of Sir Eustace Sulyard, of Runwell, Essex. There is a large number of variants using the same shields. The bottom part of the fireback is obscured in the photograph. 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.
Inscription: C.1.6.0.3.T
Arms: Ayloffe impaling Sulyard (William Ayloffe of Bretons, Hornchurch)
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular (shape)
- rope (edging)
- carved stamps
- individual letters
- individual numbers
- armorial
- text
Manufactured: in 1603 possibly at Bedgebury Furnace, Goudhurst in the Weald area of England.
Current location: in private hands, Rolvenden, Kent, England.
Citation: Gardner, J. S., 1898, 'Iron Casting in the Weald', Archaeologia, 56, 1, pp. 133-164.
- Attached to series:
- Ayloffe series
- Personal armorial firebacks
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667
Description: Armorial within complex ovolo moulded edging (top and sides); quartered shield, helm, crest and mantling; plain panel below.
Notes: The arms can be identified from the first four quarters on the memorial to Raffe Maynard, d.1613, in St Albans Cathedral; quarterly, 1, Maynard: argent, a chevron azure between three sinister hands couped at the wrist gules; 2, Filleigh: gules, a fess vairy between six crosses formy or; 3, Harris/Hawes/Hewish: gules fretty argent a canton of the second; 4, Lyons: argent a chevron sable between three lions dormant coward gules; the crest, a stag statant, is of Maynard. The Maynards, originally from Devon, were a large family in Rotherfield, and Richard Maynard (d.1619) had an interest in Old Mill, Mayfield, as well as in Birchden forge, and probably Hamsell furnace. An example without the extension panel at the bottom has been noted. A larger fireback with the same arms, and probably by the same pattern maker, can also be seen.
Copies of this fireback are known.
Arms: Maynard
- Decoration tags:
- complex quasi-arched rectangular (shape)
- ovolo (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- armorial
Manufactured: in the late 16th century in the Weald area of England.
Current location: Hole Park, Rolvenden, Kent, England.
- Attached to series:
- Personal armorial firebacks
- Ornate border series
- Maynard arms firebacks
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976
? x ? mmDescription: Plain rectangular plate with detached pediment; central shield with motto scroll below.
Notes: The severe classical form suggests that this back may have been intended for attaching to a grate. Blazon: Tynte - Gules, a lion couchant between six cross-crosslets Argent; Kemeys - Vert, on a chevron Argent three pheons Sable.
Inscription: DYW DY RAS
Arms: Tynte quartering Kemeys
- Decoration tags:
- rectangle with pediment (shape)
- none (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- armorial
Manufactured: in the 18th century in Wales.
Current location: Cefnmabli, Rudry, Glamorgan, Wales.
- Attached to series:
- Personal armorial firebacks
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1031
Description: Rectangular; astragal and fillet edging; two heater-shaped shields side by side, with a stag trippant crest above centre.
Notes: The dexter shield: quarterly first and fourth - Mostyn baronet - Gules a saracen's head erased proper wreathed about the temples sable and argent; second and third, within a bordure a fess fusily (or three lozenges in fess); a baronet's inescutcheon in the centre chief. The sinister shield - Sale - Argent on a bend cotised three gryphons' heads erased. Crest (Mostyn), a stag trippant proper.
Arms: Left: Mostyn with unknown quartering; right: Sal, Sale, Salle or Salley
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular (shape)
- astragal & fillet (edging)
- carved stamps
- heraldic
- armorial
- animals
- humans
Manufactured: in the 19th century in England.
Current location: in private hands, Saxtead, Suffolk, England.
- Attached to series:
- Personal armorial firebacks
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686
Description: Rectangular with arched rectangular shaped top joined by cavetto curves; astragal edging; 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.
Inscription: [around shield] HONY SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE / [on motto scroll] AUT NUNQUAM TENTES, AUT PERFICE
Arms: Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset
- Decoration tags:
- arched canted rectangular (shape)
- astragal (edging)
- carved pattern panels
- armorial
- text
Manufactured: in the early 18th century in the Weald area of England.
Current location: Knole, Sevenoaks, Kent, England.
Museum number: 129683 (part of the National Trust museum group)
- Attached to series:
- Dorset arms series
- Sackville firebacks
- Personal armorial firebacks
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687
Description: Rectangular with arched rectangular shaped top joined by cavetto curves; astragal edging; 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.
Copies of this fireback are known.
Inscription: [around shield] HONY SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE / [on motto scroll] AUT NUNQUAM TENTES, AUT PERFICE
Arms: Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset
- Decoration tags:
- arched canted rectangular (shape)
- astragal (edging)
- carved pattern panels
- armorial
- text
Manufactured: in the early 18th century in the Weald area of England.
Current location: Knole, Sevenoaks, Kent, England.
Museum number: NT/KNO/M/41 (part of the National Trust museum group)
- Attached to series:
- Dorset arms series
- Sackville firebacks
- Personal armorial firebacks
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688
Description: Rectangular; astragal edging; in centre, 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.
Inscription: [around shield] HONY SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE / [on motto scroll] AUT NUNQUAM TENTES, AUT PERFICE
Arms: Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular (shape)
- astragal (edging)
- carved pattern panels
- armorial
- text
Manufactured: in the early 18th century in the Weald area of England.
Current location: Knole, Sevenoaks, Kent, England.
(part of the National Trust museum group)
- Attached to series:
- Dorset arms series
- Sackville firebacks
- Personal armorial firebacks
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691
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
- Decoration tags:
- quasi-arched rectangular (shape)
- ovolo, egg and dart (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- individual letters
- individual numbers
- armorial
- text
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)
- Attached to series:
- Personal armorial firebacks
- Date & initials firebacks
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959
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
- Decoration tags:
- arched (shape)
- rope (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- individual letters
- individual numbers
- armorial
- text
Manufactured: in 1605 probably at Staveley Furnace in the Derbyshire area of England.
Current location: Staveley Hall, Staveley Hall Drive, Staveley, Derbyshire, England.
- Attached to series:
- Personal armorial firebacks
- Date & initials firebacks
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693
Description: Canted rectangle; twisted rope edging (top and sides); a shield repeated five times, each bearing three arrows palewise, points down, with a molet (star) above the middle arrow, two over three.
Notes: Three arrows form the arms of several families, so identification of the arms is not possible without the associated colouring. The star is likely to be a mark of cadency, granted to a third son. Four rivets along the base may relate to earlier repair. The fireback was formerly at Chisenbury Priory, Wiltshire. A variant with three shields (W 740mm x H 480mm) was lot 530 at Brettells auction, Newport, Salop, 1 March 2022 and again as lot 457 on 2 May 2023.
Arms: Not known
- Decoration tags:
- canted rectangular (shape)
- rope (edging)
- carved stamps
- armorial
Manufactured: in the late 16th to early 17th century in England.
Current location: Cothay Manor, Stawley, Somerset, England.
- Attached to series:
- Personal armorial firebacks