Firebacks

Dragon series

  1. 120

    bridgewater_collection 01 (hastings 010).jpg
    749 x 432 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Rectangular; rope edge (top and sides); rose and crown within a shield, stamped twice, both inverted, down centre; rectangular stamp with dragon, twice, in top corners.

    Notes: Four other firebacks bearing these stamps are known: one is also in Hastings, and one, dated 1569, is at Hadlow Down, Sussex. The locations of the other two, formerly in Ipswich and Guildford, are not known.

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

    Current location: Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, John's Place, Bohemia Road, Hastings, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: 952.51.11 (part of the Hastings Museum museum group)

    Citation: Manwaring Baines, J., 1958, Wealden Firebacks (Hastings Museum).

  2. 1196

    christy_1908_fig10.png
    ~897 x ~638 mm

    Description: Quasi-rectangular shape; twisted rope edging (top and sides); 'W' in top corners, between which are a line of five stamps: a 'renaissance' style shield bearing a rose and crown, between two rose stamps, and a rectangular stamp bearing a dragon at each end; below each dragon stamp, a 'W' preceded by a reversed 'P'; below this, the line of five stamps repeated.

    Notes: The shield and dragon stamps have been seen on other firebacks, associating them with a common producer; the 'W' may be apotropaic and symbolic of the Virgin Mary. Illustration from Christy 1908 who noted the fireback at Guildford, Surrey.

    Inscription: W W / qW qW

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

    Current location:.

    Citation: Christy, M., 30 May 1908, 'The Old Flat Hearth and its Appliances, III - The Fire-back', The Crown, The Court and County Families' Newspaper, XCIX, Vol. 8, No. 9, pp. 383-6.

  3. 91

    hadlow_down, tulleys.jpg
    1247 x 770 mm

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); narrow top panel and two narrow side panels, each separated by twisted rope; top panel with symmetrical inscription line begun and ended with a stamp formed of four spots in square, the same stamps separating the date, each of the initials and a central rose stamp, the date being repeated at each end; plain side panels; central panel comprising three shields bearing a rose and crown, one on the top line between two rectangles, each bearing a dragon passant, and two shields on the ends of the lower line with two dragons rectangles between, the bottom half of the plate is plain.

    Notes: The shield and dragon stamps appear on two firebacks at Hastings Museum, in each of which the shields are inverted.

    Inscription: 1569 HB AB 1569

    Manufactured: in 1569 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Hadlow Down, East Sussex, England.

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

  4. 173

    hastings_060.jpg
    840 x 485 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top, and top two-thirds of sides); rectangular stamp with dragon passant, repeated six times: two in top corners; two in bottom corners, rotated left; two in middle, separated by two inverted shields bearing a rose and crown, placed vertically; across each top corner, a length of twisted rope.

    Notes: Four other firebacks bearing these stamps are known: one is also in Hastings, and one, dated 1569, is at Hadlow Down, Sussex. The locations of the other two, formerly in Ipswich and Guildford, are not known.

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

    Current location: Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, John's Place, Bohemia Road, Hastings, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: 909.78 (part of the Hastings Museum museum group)

    Citation: Manwaring Baines, J., 1958, Wealden Firebacks (Hastings Museum).