Firebacks

Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); canted rope lengths across top corners; three impressions of a rondel dagger (c. 410mm) with a baluster-turned grip, the middle one per fess, pommel in chief, the other two on either side, per bend, points in chief.

Notes: The arrangement of daggers is similar to the arms of Vigures, of Launceston, Cornwall, but inverted; the plate has been pierced on each side for fixing to the back of the fireplace; the dagger (length approx. 41cm) may be of German design.

Description: Quasi-rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides); across the centre, three crosses formed of the repeated stamping of a length of twisted rope.

Notes: The edging appears to have been formed of the same length of rope. The crosses almost certainly have Christian significance.

Description: Rectangular; flanged edge; central pictorial panel illustrating Mordecai arriving before King Ahasuerus, Haman hanging from the gallows behind; two floral side panels, at the top of each a monogram within a cartouche: on the left KS, on the right H?D; plain extension panel at bottom.

Notes: Stoveplate; the scene illustrates a scene from Esther 7: 10 and 8: 1.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: KS H[?]D

Description: Rectangular; flanged fillet edging; single date stampo above a pictorial scene showing the cricifixion with members of the Holy family, soldiers and onllokers surrounding the three crosses; kinscription betlow separating a separate pictorial panel illegible through corrosion; a single letter 'I' in top right corner.

Notes: A characteristic stove-plate of the period.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: 1574 I / INRI / MATTEUS AM 27 CAPITEL

Description: Rectangular with flanged edging and a moulded frame; pictorial scene of the Marriage at Cana in an architectural setting; inscription along bottom edge.

Notes: The pattern-maker is believed to be Master Ronnung.

Inscription: HISTORIA VON DER HOCHZEIT ZV CANA IN GALILEA ...

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.

Description: Rectangular; wide fillet and cavetto-moulded edging; female figure holding a bow, with a quiver of arrows on her back, standing on a scallop shell; foliate swirls on each side.

Notes: The figure is that of Diana or Artemis.

Description: Rectangular; three birds (probably swans, a Lancastrian badge) turned to the left, their heads facing right, and the front edge of their left wing extended and inverted; vine pattern strips, one horizontal along the top, and 14, of varied length, vertically across the rest of the fireback; seven ‘grape bunch’ shapes with criss-cross markings, arranged in three groups — 3-1-3 — adjacent to the birds.

Notes: The same vine strips are found on several firebacks, including some of the ‘Anne Forster’ series; the birds are also seen on a number of firebacks; the ‘grape bunch’ shapes may be the same as those on the ‘Anne Forster’ graveslab in Crowhurst church, Surrey. John Starkie Gardner and later writers attributed the birds to an association with the Fowle family; this is unlikely to be correct as the Fowles came to prominence in the iron industry towards the end of the sixteenth century and had their own distinctive decorative emblems. Formerly in the collection of Lady Dorothy Nevill.

Description: Rectangular; a crowned lion fighting a boar in high relief on a raised bottom panel; above, a stamp formed from a fleur-de-lys on a bracket repeated three times, centre left and right corners; two angled shields and two sunburst discs.

Notes: The shields probably signify civic or personal allegiance; the symbolism of the fighting beasts is not known. Part of the bequest to the Victoria and Albert Museum by Lieut. Colonel G. B. Croft-Lyons in 1926.

Inscription: P T

Description: Plain rectangular plate; shield, garter, helm, mantling and supporters of the Blount family, Lords Mountjoy.

Notes: The arms are those of Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy, who was invested Knight of the Garter in 1597. He was created 1st Earl of Devonshire in 1603. Blazon: 1. (Blount) Barry nebuly of six Or and Sable; 2. (Ayala) Argent, two wolves passant Sable on a bordure of the first eight saltires Gules; 3. (Mountjoy) Or a tower Azure; 4. (Gresley) Vair. An unusually bold and detailed casting; the buckle missing from the garter suggests that this plate has been cropped from a larger fireback.

Inscription: HONI·SOIT·QVI·MAL·Y·PENSE

Arms: Charles Blount, KG, 8th Baron Mountjoy