Firebacks

Shape: rectangular

329 results

  1. 1232

    hook_1040x570.jpg
    1040 x 570 mm

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging on top and sides; date placed slightly right of centre near top.

    Notes: A similar fireback with slightly different proportions has the same date using the same numerals.

    Inscription: 1679

    Manufactured: in 1679 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: not known.

  2. 1233

    hook_915x605.jpg
    915 x 605 mm

    Description: Rectangular shape; no edging; upper centre, initials 'HI'; lower centre, date '1795'.

    Notes: Simple design with bold, well-carved characters.

    Inscription: H I / 1795

    Manufactured: in 1795 in England.

    Current location: not known.

  3. 330

    horsham_museum 08.jpg
    920 x 610 mm

    Description: Rectangular; plain edge; top centre, ring between repeated lion's head between repeated narrow human figure with folded arms standing on a bracket; below each figure, a small bracket.

    Notes: The figures are indistinct and are disproportionately small for the size of the firebacks; from Isfield Place 1921.

    Manufactured: in the late-19th to early-20th century in England.

    Current location: Horsham Museum, Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex, England.

    (part of the Horsham Museum museum group)

  4. 331

    horsham_museum 09.jpg
    1052 x 588 mm

    Description: Rectangular; no edging; inscription evenly spaced along top, sans serif lettering.

    Inscription: IS D T IS

    Manufactured: in the late-19th to early-20th century in England.

    Current location: Horsham Museum, Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex, England.

    (part of the Horsham Museum museum group)

  5. 951

    horsted_keynes, broadhurst 02.jpg
    1105 x 720 mm

    Description: Rectangular; central shield; fleur-de-lys stamp repeated three times across top and once on each side level with shield, all regularly spaced.

    Notes: It is likely that the arms relate to the marriage, in 1541, of Christopher Sackville (c.1519-1559), son of John Sackville of Chiddingly, Sussex, and Constance Colepeper, daughter of Thomas Colepeper of Bedgebury, Kent, one of whose ancestors was the heiress, Elizabeth Hardreshull. The blazon: Sackville - quarterly or and gules, a bend vair; Colepeper - argent a bend engrailed gules; Hardreshull - argent a chevron sable between nine martlets gules, six and three. Christopher Sackville's brother, Sir Richard, owned Horsted Keynes furnace, which may have been where this fireback was cast. A candidate for the earliest English fireback with an example of personal arms.

    Arms: Sackville impaling Colepeper and Hardreshall

    Manufactured: in the mid-16th century possibly at Horsted Keynes Furnace in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Horsted Keynes, West Sussex, England.

  6. 950

    horsted_keynes,_broadhurst_01a.jpg
    1010 x 740 mm

    Description: Rectangular shape; ovolo-moulded edging (top and sides); date top centre.

    Notes: The style of the numerals is identical to those seen on another fireback, indicating a common source.

    Inscription: 1658

    Manufactured: in 1658 possibly at Tintern Furnace in the Forest of Dean area of Wales.

    Current location: in private hands, Horsted Keynes, West Sussex, England.

  7. 334

    huddington_court 02.jpg
    607 x 498 mm

    Description: Quasi-rectangular; twisted rope lengths along top and sides; centre top, quartered shield between two vertical carved stamps of a billet with five oval shapes; the same billet is repeated horizontally below between two irregular twisted rope saltires.

    Notes: The arms are probably of Thomas Wriothesley, who was Henry VIII's last Lord Chancellor and created Earl of Southampton in 1547; he married c.1533 so the arms could date to before then, but the same arms are displayed on his enamelled stall plate in St George's Chapel, Windsor, of 1545, and in stained glass in a window in the parish church at South Warnborough, Hampshire. The shield is, quarterly, 1. Wrythe or Wriothesley quartering Dunstanville and Pink, 2. Drayton, 3. Crocker and 4. Peckham. A candidate for the earliest English fireback with an example of personal arms. A similar fireback is no. 1305.

    Arms: Wriothesley (Earl of Southampton)

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

    Current location: in private hands, Huddington, Worcestershire, England.

    Citation: Gardner, J. S., 25 May 1907, 'Old Wealden Ironwork at Warnham Court', Country Life, pp. 730-2.

    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.

  8. 339

    huddington_court 07.jpg
    503 x 504 mm

    Description: Rectangular with rebated top corners; ovolo moulded edging (top and sides); topcentre, date above initials.

    Notes: The rebated corners are an unusual feature.

    Inscription: 1653 / T · L ·C

    Manufactured: in 1653 in England.

    Current location: in private hands, Huddington, Worcestershire, England.

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

  9. 347

    ightham_mote  06.jpg
    1195 x 688 mm

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); central Tudor shield, garter, crown and supporters (greyhound and lion), formed from separate stamps; date on a single stamp in top left corner.

    Notes: The worn appearance of the central arms, compared with the clarity of the date, suggests that this is an early example of a fireback being used as a pattern, with the addition of a subsequent date. The same stamps forming the arms can also be seen on other firebacks. The extension of the lower part of the ‘3’ on the date stamp suggests that the numbers may have been fixed to the backing block, rather than the date being carved as a whole. Another variant of this fireback has the rope edging extending only three-quarters of the way down the sides.

    Inscription: 1583

    Arms: Tudor royal

    Manufactured: in 1583 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Ightham Mote, Ightham, Kent, England.

    Museum number: 825358 (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).

  10. 345

    ightham_mote 04.jpg
    945 x 680 mm

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); from top, crowned Tudor royal shield (stamp overpressed) above crowned shield bearing initials, KH in Lombardic lettering, above a fleur de lys (stamp overpressed); to left, diagonal lion passant guardant sinister; to right, diagonal lion passant; at base, single 'imp' figure, arms to side, moving left but facing right, between two pairs of 'imp' figures (separately stamped), one moving left, right arm raised, the other moving right, right arm raised.

    Notes: One of the 'Royal' series.

    Arms: Tudor royal arms of England

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

    Current location: Ightham Mote, Ightham, Kent, England.

    Museum number: 825393 (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).

    Citation: Hodgkinson, J. S., 2022, 'A Tudor Fireback Stamp: the progressive deterioration of its condition as evidence of the relative age of castings', Journal of the Antique Metalware Society, 27, pp. 42-5.