Firebacks

Personal armorial firebacks

134 results

  1. 821

    ripley_064.jpg
    610 x 735 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; fillet edging; shield, crest and motto in relief in a recessed arched rectangle.

    Notes: The arms are of Weston, of West Horsley, Surrey: Sable, a chevron or between three leopards heads erased argent crowned or and langued gules; crest: a wolf passant ducally gorged or; motto: Gloria sat Deus unus - God alone is sufficient glory; the Westons were at West Horsley Place from the mid 18th century.

    Inscription: GLORIA SAT DEUS UNUS

    Arms: Weston family of West Horsley, Surrey

    Manufactured: in the mid- to late-19th century in England.

    Current location: Mark Ripley Forge & Fireplaces, Northbridge Street, Robertsbridge, East Sussex, England.

  2. 663

    rolvenden,_maplesden.jpg
    1185 x 760 mm

    Description: Rectangular, with canted top corners; twisted rope edging (top and sides only); nine shields of Ayloffe impaling Sulyard in two rows, 5-4; two parallel vertical cuts for the insertion of firedogs.

    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.

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

    Manufactured: in the early-17th century in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Rolvenden, Kent, England.

    Citation: Cowper, H. S., 1911, 'A Series of Kentish Heraldic Firebacks and the Identification of the Arms', Archaeologia Cantiana, 29, pp. 40-6.

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

  3. 665

    rolvenden,_rawlinson house 03.jpg
    1530 x 750 mm

    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)

    Manufactured: in 1603 possibly at Bedgebury Furnace, Goudhurst in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Rolvenden, Kent, England.

    Citation: Cowper, H. S., 1911, 'A Series of Kentish Heraldic Firebacks and the Identification of the Arms', Archaeologia Cantiana, 29, pp. 40-6.

    Citation: Gardner, J. S., 1898, 'Iron Casting in the Weald', Archaeologia, 56, 1, pp. 133-164.

    Citation: Hodgkinson, J. S., 2018, 'A series of Kentish firebacks and the possible identification of their founder', Archaeologia Cantiana, 139, pp. 312-15.

  4. 667

    rolvenden,_squires 02.jpg
    660 x 515 mm

    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 (no. 144).

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Arms: Maynard

    Manufactured: in the late-16th century in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Hole Park, Rolvenden, Kent, England.

    Citation: Demain-Saunders, C., Dec 1934, 'The Early Maynards of Devon and St Albans', Genealogists Magazine, pp. 591-641.

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

  5. 976

    rudry,_cefnmabli.jpg
    ? x ? mm

    Description: 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

    Manufactured: in the 18th century in Wales.

    Current location: Cefnmabli, Rudry, Glamorgan, Wales.

    Citation: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, 1981, An Inventory of Ancient Monuments of Glamorgan Vol IV Part 1: Domestic Architecture from the Reformation to the Industrial Revolution: the Greater Houses (Cardiff, HMSO).

  6. 1031

    saxtead_green, limes farmhouse.jpg
    460 x 420 mm

    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

    Manufactured: in the 19th century in England.

    Current location: in private hands, Saxtead, Suffolk, England.

  7. 686

    sevenoaks,_knole 02.jpg
    915 x 910 mm

    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

    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)

  8. 687

    sevenoaks,_knole 03.jpg
    905 x 915 mm

    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

    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)

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

  9. 688

    sevenoaks,_knole 04.jpg
    1210 x 800 mm

    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

    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)

  10. 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.