Firebacks

Shape: rectangular

329 results

  1. 745

    va_21.jpg
    530 x 1160 mm

    Description: Rectangular; flanged edging; two panels, each with fillet edging; upper panel, two shields, each with helm and crest, between narrow twisted columns, with tracery above and a twisted horizontal pole on top; lower panel, same shields and twisted columns with a crossed vine design above and the same pole on top.

    Notes: Probably arms of locksmiths' and masons' guilds.

    Manufactured: in the mid- to late-16th century in Germany.

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

    Museum number: M.12-1940 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

  2. 751

    va_27.jpg
    560 x 430 mm

    Description: Rectangular, cavetto moulded edging; Stuart royal shield, garter, supporters and crown.

    Notes: One clear vertical plank line indicate that the pattern for this fireback was formed of a series of boards probably secured by horizontal battens on the rear.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE

    Arms: English Stuart royal

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

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

    Museum number: 432.1896 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

  3. 752

    va_28.jpg
    1480 x 710 mm

    Description: Rectangular; cavetto moulded edging on top and sides, with astragal and fillet inside; talbot crest within wreath and eight-pointed star, repeated at top corners; date top centre between mouldings.

    Notes: The crest is probably that of the Parker family, of Ratton, near Eastbourne, Sussex. The base board appears to have been repositioned prior to the wreath stamps being impressed in the mould. Acquired from Marle Green Farm, Hellingly, Sussex, in 1896.

    Inscription: 1584

    Manufactured: in 1584 in the Weald area of England.

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

    Museum number: 780.1896 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

    Citation: Garner, T. and Stratton, A., 1911, The Domestic Architecture of England during the Tudor Period, Part III (London, Batsford), pp. 240-2 and pl. CLXXIX.

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

  4. 754

    va_30.jpg
    540 x 745 mm

    Description: Rectangular; flanged edging; two panels at top, each with double astragal edging, containing the figures of St James and St Peter; plain panel below with same dging; bottom panel with fillet edging containing carved stamps of scrolled foliage and beasts.

    Notes: Carved religious figures are common on stove-plates.

    Manufactured: in the mid- to late-16th century possibly in the Eifel area of Germany.

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

    Museum number: M.334-1940 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

  5. 762

    va_38.jpg
    600 x 680 mm

    Description: Rectangular; astragal and fillet edging; oval shield of the Paulet family (sable three swords, points conjoined in pile), within a cartouche, surmounted by a marquis’s coronet; date split between bottom corners.

    Notes: The arms of Charles Paulet, 6th Marquess of Winchester, who succeeded to the title in 1674 and was created Duke of Bolton in 1689. The fireback is reported to have come from Grange Farm, Basing House, Hampshire; Basing House was the seat of the Paulets.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 16 87

    Arms: Charles Paulet, 6th Marquess of Winchester

    Manufactured: in 1687 possibly at Sowley Furnace, Beaulieu in England.

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

    Museum number: M.103-1913 (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).

  6. 764

    va_40.jpg
    690 x 590 mm

    Description: Stove-plate; rectangular; flanged edging; central rectangular panel bearing the shield of the kingdom of Denmark and Norway with male supporters, encircled by the chain of the Order of the Elephant; one each side of the central panel, repeated floriate stamps and flower heads.

    Notes: A similar plate is illustrated by Nygard-Nilssen vol. 1, p.255. The poor detail suggests that this is a copy.

    Arms: Kingdom of Denmark and Norway

    Manufactured: in the early- to mid-18th century .

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

    Museum number: M.12-2002 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

    Citation: Nygard-Nilssen, A., 1944, Norsk Jernskulptur (Oslo, Cappelens Forlag).

  7. 769

    va_45.jpg
    560 x 475 mm

    Description: Rectangular; cavetto-moulded edge; a snake rises from a fire and bites the middle finger of the hand of a sleeved left arm that descends from a top right corner cloud; left and right, ‘S’ scrolls appear strapped to the edge of the fireback; the date, top left of centre; initials, bottom right corner.

    Notes: An illustration of the New Testament episode (Acts 28: 3) when St Paul, shipwrecked in the island of Malta, was putting sticks on a fire and a viper bit him. The distinctive shape of the ‘1’ in the date and the initials, ‘IM’, together with the ‘S’ scrolls, parallel such features in other firebacks. The design is an adaptation of an illustration in 'Devises Heroiques' by Claudius Paradin (1557) which was translated into English by Geoffrey Whitney as 'The Book of Emblemes' (1586).

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 1649 / IM

    Manufactured: in 1649 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.119-1984 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

    Citation: Hamling, T., 2010, Decorating the 'Godly' Household (New Haven, Yale), pp. 251-2.

    Citation: Hamling, T., 2015, 'Seeing Salvation in the Domestic Hearth in Post-Reformation England' in J. Willis (ed.), Sin and Salvation in Reformation England (Farnham, Ashgate Publishing), 223-44.

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

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

  8. 776

    va_51.jpg
    470 x 540 mm

    Description: Stove-plate; poss. fragment; rectangular; flanged edging on top and sides; pictorial scene illustrating the biblical tale of Joshua and the five kings.

    Notes: Joshua 10.

    Manufactured: in the mid- to late-16th century possibly in the Eifel area of Germany.

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

    Museum number: 289.1923 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

  9. 777

    va_52.jpg
    400 x 600 mm

    Description: Rectangular; cavetto-moulding within a flanged edge; floriate arch above a female figure with a child in her left arm and another by her right side, initials split by the group; below a simulated rope-twist fillet, elaborate floriate cartouche containing the word, CHARITAS.

    Notes: A late stove-plate, illustrated in von den Driesch p.484.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: G S / CHARITAS

    Manufactured: in the late-17th century in the Siegerland area of Germany.

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

    Museum number: 890.1901 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

    Citation: Driesch, K. von den , 1990, Handbuch der Ofen-, Kamin- und Takenplatten im Rheinland (Cologne, Rheinland-Verlag).

  10. 1067

    va_57b.jpg
    >650 x 810 mm

    Description: Fragment; rectangular shape; ovolo-moulded edging (top and sides); six stamps, in two columns of three, taking the form of a long-pointed arrow head within a circlet of small curls.

    Notes: The stamps are of an unfamiliar type with some similarity to the heraldic symbol for ermine. Because only the left part of the fireback has survived it is not known how many original columns of this stamp there were.

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

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

    Museum number: M.148-1915 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)