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810
Description: Rectangular; carved strip with undulating vine between fillets, repeated on each side; carved inscription panel along top edge; centre, two traceried panels, each with a central shield beneath a gothic arch.
Notes: One of several similar firebacks produced in the same period.
Copies of this fireback are known.
Inscription: JHESUS MARIA JHONES
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular (shape)
- fillet (edging)
- simple stamps
- carved stamps
- architectural
- armorial
- text
Manufactured: in the early 16th century possibly in the Eifel area of Germany.
Current location: in private hands, Cox Green, Berkshire, England.
- Attached to series:
- Foreign armorial firebacks
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120
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: Three other firebacks bearing these stamps are known: one at Hadlow Down, Sussex, in private hands, and a second one at Hastings Museum with more of the same stamps and rope lengths; the present location of the third is not known.
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular (shape)
- rope (edging)
- carved stamps
- heraldic
Manufactured: in the mid to late 16th century in the Weald area of England.
Current location: Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, 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)
- Attached to series:
- Dragon series
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651
Description: Rectangular; cavetto edging; a left-facing cockerel grasps a snake in its beak, another snake writhes on the ground behind it; date to left of the cockerel’s tail; four vertical planklines.
Notes: The design may have religious significance, the snake symbolising sin and the cockerel denoting St Peter’s denial of Christ. The ‘1’ of the date is hooked, suggesting a common source with firebacks designed by the pattern-maker, IM.
Copies of this fireback are known.
Inscription: 1652
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular (shape)
- cavetto (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- planklines
- pictorial
- biblical
- text
- animals
Manufactured: in 1652 possibly at Brede furnace in the Weald area of England.
Current location:.
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852
Description: Rectangular; cyma recta (ogee) moulded edging (top and sides); fleur-de-lys stamp repeated three times across the upper part of the plate; a long pastry mould stamped between each pair of fleurs; above the central fleur, a small stamp, over-pressed, bearing FL below a coronet; above the right fleur, a small stamp, over-pressed, bearing a fish embowed.
Notes: The food moulds are variations of others used in the same series.
Inscription: FL
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular (shape)
- cyma reversa/ogee (edging)
- simple stamps
- carved stamps
- heraldic
- text
- animals
- objects
Manufactured: in the mid to late 16th century possibly at Pounsley furnace in the Weald area of England.
Current location:.
- Attached to series:
- Food mould stamp firebacks
- Pounsley series
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220
Description: Rectangular with cavetto moulded edging; English Royal supporters (crowned lion and unicorn) standing upon a cartouche, upon which rests a blank motto scroll; above, an anchor, surrounded by a looped cable is encircled by the Garter ribbon, which is surmounted by a royal coronet; the numbers ‘61’, presumably part of the date, are to the right of the unicorn, and a letter, ‘D’, is placed between the unicorn and the coronet.
Notes: From another casting of the same back, the date is known to be 1661. The cabled anchor is the badge of the Lord High Admiral who, in 1661, was the Duke of York and Albany, later James II. The missing initial is an ‘I’, for Jacobus Dux. The absence of the motto may be explained by the pattern being a carved armorial panel where the motto text, unlike that of the Garter, was merely painted.
Copies of this fireback are known.
Inscription: [I] D / 16 61
Arms: Lord High Admiral of England
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular (shape)
- cavetto (edging)
- whole carved pattern
- individual letters
- individual numbers
- armorial
- text
Manufactured: in 1661 possibly in the Weald area of England.
Current location: Preston Manor, Brighton, East Sussex, England.
Museum number: PM400269 (part of the Brighton Museum museum group)
- Attached to series:
- Miscellaneous royal firebacks
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218
Description: Rectangular; cyma recta moulded edging formed of short lengths probably derived from furniture; top left, initials arranged in triad; top right, date; top centre, rose-and-crown between two small fleurs de lys, with two concentric rope-patterned roundels outside, above two small roses; four roses evenly spaced across lower middle, with a fleur between each outer pair, and another rose below the date.
Notes: One of a series of firebacks cast between the 1670s and 1690s bearing small, simple stamps, initials and dates; the style of rose and crown is similar to that used in gun founding in the Tudor period, suggesting that the furnace that was the source of this fireback may have been used for that purpose.
Inscription: HEM [triad] 1685
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular (shape)
- complex, furniture-derived (edging)
- simple stamps
- carved stamps
- individual letters
- individual numbers
- heraldic
- royal
- text
- objects
Manufactured: in 1685 in the Weald area of England.
Current location: Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Brighton, East Sussex, England.
Museum number: R3341/2 (part of the Brighton Museum museum group)
Citation: Lindsay, J. S., 1927, Iron & Brass Implements of the English House (London, The Medici Society).
- Attached to series:
- 1660s-90s Wealden series
- Date & initials firebacks
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1022
Description: Rectangular, with double fillet edging (top and sides); fillets parallel to top and to each side, dividing the plate into two square corner panels and narrow rectangular panels along top and down each side; fillet arc across inside top corners; date split between top corners, divided by vertical fillets, and separated by a hollow saltire stamp repeated six times; one hollow saltire, with a central bead, between each corner arc; eight similar saltire stamps down each side panel; 27 'daisy heads' arranged regularly around outer edge of central panel, with five saltires arranged in a cross shape in the centre.
Notes: The arc shape and use of repeated 'daisy heads' suggests a common source with other firebacks of the same period; the poor definition is due to insufficient impression at the moulding stage.
Inscription: 17 02
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular (shape)
- fillet (edging)
- carved stamps
- individual numbers
Manufactured: in 1702 in the Forest of Dean area of England.
Current location: Tolsey Museum, 126 High Street, Burford, Oxfordshire, England.
(part of the Tolsey Museum, Burford museum group)
- Attached to series:
- Date only firebacks
- Hollow saltire series
- Newent area group
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202
Description: Rectangular; edging formed from furniture moulding; shield of Ayloffe impaling Sulyard repeated eight times (3-2-3), with the same shield repeated seven times, less prominently, in the spaces between the first shields.
Notes: 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. A large number of variants use the same shields. Several copies are known of this fireback, but in precisely the same arrangement, all poorly cast, unlike the variants without the additional shields, which are found in many different arrangements, some with dates and initials. From an illustration in the catalogue of an exhibition on heraldry at Burlington House, London, in 1894, it then being at Manor Farm, Edenbridge, Kent.
Copies of this fireback are known.
Arms: Ayloffe impaling Sulyard (William Ayloffe of Hornchurch)
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular (shape)
- complex, furniture-derived (edging)
- carved stamps
- heraldic
- armorial
Manufactured: in the early 17th century in the Weald area of England.
Current location:.
- Attached to series:
- Ayloffe series
- Personal armorial firebacks
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29
Description: Rectangular; cavetto moulded edging; initials in top left corner; date in top right corner.
Notes: The style of lettering and numerals is reminiscent of those seen on firebacks associated with the Sidneys, Earls of Leicester, and may suggest a common source.
Inscription: IB 1695
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular (shape)
- cavetto (edging)
- individual letters
- individual numbers
- text
Manufactured: in 1695 possibly in the Weald area of England.
Current location: Bateman's, Burwash, East Sussex, England.
Museum number: NT/BAT/M/204 (part of the National Trust museum group)
- Attached to series:
- Date & initials firebacks
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31
Description: Fragment; rectangular plate with series of parallelogrammatic billets arranged across the top; crossed billets in corners
- Decoration tags:
- rectangular (shape)
- none (edging)
- simple stamps
Manufactured: possibly in the Weald area of England.
Current location: in private hands Burwash, East Sussex, England.
- Attached to series:
- Miscellaneous stamp firebacks