Firebacks

Small cavetto series

14 results

  1. 670

    rottingdean_grange 03.jpg
    590 x 575 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto edging; three ostrich feathers issuing from a royal coronet; a blank motto banner below; the initials bottom left, above banner.

    Notes: The badge of the Prince of Wales; perhaps cast during the Commonwealth period.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: IL

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

    Current location: Rottingdean Grange, Rottingdean, East Sussex, England.

    (part of the Brighton Museum museum group)

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

  2. 732

    va_08.jpg
    470 x 360 mm

    Description: Rectangular; cavetto edging all round; seated lion on right, its tail rising above its back and its head turned to face the viewer; a seated sheep on the left.

    Notes: Intended to represent the saying, ‘The lion shall lie down with the lamb’, a popular misquotation of Isaiah 11: 6. Some variants are dated 1679 (see no. 481).

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Manufactured: in the mid- to late-17th century in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington & Chelsea, Greater London, England.

    Museum number: 894.1901 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

  3. 750

    va_26.jpg
    445 x 440 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto edging; crowned rose with symmetrical leaves; date split across top; initials split across bottom.

    Notes: The hooked ‘1’ and ‘IM’ suggests a common pattern-maker with other firebacks bearing those features.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 16 50 / I M

    Manufactured: in 1650 possibly at Brede Furnace in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington & Chelsea, Greater London, England.

    Museum number: M.113-1953 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

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

    Citation: Hodgkinson, J. S., 2012, 'Pre-Restoration Iron Firebacks', Journal of the Antique Metalware Society, 20, pp. 2-15.

    Citation: Hodgkinson, J. S., 2014, 'A Seventeenth-Century Sussex Woodcarver: The Evidence of Cast Ironwork', Regional Furniture, 28, pp. 39-48.

  4. 795

    winchester_museum store 03.jpg
    757 x 600 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto-moulded edging; English royal Stuart shield, garter, crown, supporters and motto; initials split by crown.

    Notes: The arches of the crown are not typically English in form, suggesting a possibly continental pattern-maker.

    Inscription: C R / HONI SOIT QVI MAL ...PEN...

    Arms: English Stuart royal

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

    Current location: Winchester Museums Store, Unit F2, Bar End Industrial Estate, Winchester, Hampshire, Winchester, Hampshire, England.

    Museum number: WINCM:LH 3737 (part of the Winchester Museums museum group)