Firebacks

Shape: complex quasi-arched

  1. 488

    michelham_001.jpg
    617 x 590 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Rectangular with complex quasi-arched rectangular top; fillet edging; shield with Royal arms of France in a cartouche; above, an English crown.

    Notes: The combination of the English crown and French arms is common and may relate to the marriage of Charles I and Princess Henrietta Maria of France in 1625. Said to have been cast by Thomas Prickett (1727-95) at Gloucester Furnace, Lamberhurst. Formerly part of the J. H. Every collection.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Arms: France modern

    Manufactured: in the early to mid 17th century probably at Gloucester Furnace, Lamberhurst in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Michelham Priory, Arlington, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: 1944.24.068 (part of the Sussex Archaeological Society museum group)

    Citation: Dawson, C., 1903, 'Sussex Iron Work and Pottery', Sussex Archaeological Collections, 46, pp. 1-54.

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

    Citation: Phillips, C. T., 1894, 'Interesting additions to the museum', Sussex Archaeological Collections,39, pp. 214-5.

  2. 491

    michelham_005.jpg
    890 x 673 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Armorial; one plank line; shield, supporters, helm, crest and garter of the Sackville family: quarterly or and gules, a bend vair.

    Notes: The arms of Thomas Sackville (1527-1608), created 1st Baron Buckhurst in 1567 and invested Knight of the Garter in 1589. He was MP for East Grinstead. He was created 1st Earl of Dorset in 1604; the back therefore dates between 1589 and 1604.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: HONI ... MAL Y PEN ...

    Arms: Sackville, Baron Buckhurst

    Manufactured: in the late 16th to early 17th century in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Michelham Priory, Arlington, East Sussex, England.

    (part of the Sussex Archaeological Society museum group)

    Citation: Butterfield, W. R., 1916, 'Old Wealden Firebacks', The Connoisseur, 46, pp. 197-209.

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

  3. 506

    parham_001.jpg
    920 x 1070 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Plain rectangular shield with sloping edges; shield helm and crest of Sir Weetman Pearson Bt.: Per fess indented gules and or, between two suns in splendour in chief an escutcheon bearing a baronet's badge, and a demi-gryphon couped wings elevated and addorsed in base all counterchanged; crest: in front of a demi-gryphon as in the arms, holding between the claws a mill-stone proper, thereon a mill-rind sable, a sun in splendour.

    Notes: Sir Weetman Pearson, later Viscount Cowdray, was created Baronet in 1894 and Baron in 1910, the fireback thus dates from the period 1894-1910. The motto - Do it with thy might - is from Ecclesiates 9: 10.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: DO IT WITH THY MIGHT

    Arms: Sir Weetman Pearson Bt

    Manufactured: in the late 19th century in England.

    Current location: Parham House, Parham, West Sussex, England.

  4. 659

    rolvenden,_hole park 02.jpg
    615 x 595 mm

    Description: Rectangular with complex quasi-arched rectangular top; ovolo moulded edging; shield with Royal arms of France in a cartouche; above, an English crown.

    Notes: A different version of the fireback above. The combination of the English crown and French arms is common and may relate to the marriage of Charles I and Princess Henrietta Maria of France in 1625; probably the work of the same pattern maker. Many copies exist of this fireback.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Arms: French royal

    Manufactured: in the early to mid 17th century in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Rolvenden, Kent, England.