Firebacks

Description: Central panel of arched rectangular shape with cavetto canted corners and bead edging; crowned female figure holding a sceptre in her right hand, seated in a chariot drawn by two caparisoned ponies, a cornucopia at their feet; below, sloping ground with plants, clouds with rain above; identically shaped border with fillet edging and symmetrical swags of flowers and drapery suspended from ribbons; at the base two symmetrical palm fronds tied with a ribbon.

Notes: The figure may represent Ceres, goddess of plenty. The fireback is one of a series designed and made in England, copying the prevailing 'Dutch' style. Its style echoes that of a fireback pattern preserved at Rottingdean Grange, Sussex. Formerly part of the Ade Collection (from Grove Hill, Hellingly, Sussex).

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Cavetto-canted rectangle with arch; ovolo-moulded edging; shield, garter, helm, mantling, crest and supporters of William Cecil, 1st Lord Burghley, KG (1520-98). Date below garter.

Notes: William Cecil was Queen Elizabeth I's first minister. The wooden pattern for this fireback (no. 926), itself a fine carved, wooden painted panel, is at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE 15 75

Arms: William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley KG

Description: Rectangular with arched rectangular shaped top joined by cavetto curves; astragal edging; shield, supporters, ducal coronet, motto and garter of the Duke of Dorset: Quarterly, Or and gules, a bend vair.

Notes: Almost certainly the arms of Lionel Sackville KG (1688-1765), created first duke of Dorset in 1720.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: [around shield] HONY SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE / [on motto scroll] AUT NUNQUAM TENTES, AUT PERFICE

Arms: Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset

Description: Central panel of arched rectangular shape with cavetto canted corners and bead edging; figure seated astride a triumph of weaponry (cannon, spears, drums), holding a laurel wreath in his right hand, surrounded by martial objects (flags, cannon, drums etc.), symmetrical hanging drapery above; same-shaped border with fillet edging and suspended ribbons with floral bunches

Notes: Possibly a depiction of an allegory of Victory. Other firebacks have the same distinctively shaped central panel and border shape, suggesting the same pattern maker. A reduced variant of a more elaborate fireback (no. 456) but missing mirrored serpents on top and probable reed decoration at the base.

Description: Cavetto-canted rectangle with arched top; astragal and cavetto edging (top and sides); pictorial; back-to-back figures of a bearded man and a woman in a poke bonnet, both dressed in tunics, their arms raised, respectively left and right; they are chained to a vertical pole; below, flames issue from vertically stacked logs, while smoke rises above them; the physical proportions of the figures are naïve, the man’s eyes being over-large, as are the hands of both.

Notes: The design is a free adaptation of an illustration from The Book of Martyrs by John Foxe (1563), a copy from a back originally noted at Brick Cottage, Burwash, Sussex, in 1871. This may be the design of fireback referred to in an enquiry printed in the St James's Chronicle, or British Evening Post, of 9 August 1788, which described it as 'having two Bishops burning at Stakes thereon' at a house in Warwickshire. At an auction sale in 2017 the same design of fireback was interpreted as the burning of Bishops Latimer and Ridley in 1555. Protestants were burnt to death at several Wealden locations as well as elsewhere in the south-east of England during the reign of Mary I, notably at Canterbury and Lewes. The subject of the fireback should be regarded as symbolic rather than commemorating any individual martyrs.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Rectangular, with low curved top and stepped concave corners; suspended floral-chain border on top and sides; alternate small and large rings along the bottom; plain panel at base. Arms of Webster, baronet, of Battle: Azure, on a bend argent, cotised Or, between two demi-lions ermine, a rose gules, barbed and seeded proper, between two boars’ heads couped sable.

Notes: Sir Thomas Webster was created baronet in 1703; he was succeeded by his son, Whistler, in 1750. A pair of matching, cast-iron side plates form a set with this fireback.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Arms: Webster of Battle

Description: Rectangle joined to low arch with cyma recta curves; ovolo-moulded edging (top and sides); grid of twelve rectangles (4 columns of 3) with twisted rope borders; initials in arch, date in top line of rectangles.

Notes: A fireback cast specially to mark the 60th anniversary of the Sussex Archaeological Society, and donated to the society by Mr John Every.

Inscription: S.A.S. / 1926

Description: Rectangular with an arched rectangular style arch linked by symmetrical concave curves; ovolo moulding (top and sides); shield, helmet, crest and mantling of the family of Baker, of Mayfield, quartered with Farnden, of Sedlescombe: Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Argent, a tower between three keys erect sable (Baker); 2nd and 3rd, Purpure, a chevron vairy Or and gules, between three leopards’ faces Or (Farnden); crest (Baker): on a tower sable an arm embowed in mail holding in the hand a flint-stone proper. Date split by mantling.

Notes: A carved armorial on a plain, edged base board. John Baker (1644-1723) married Ruth, daughter and co-heiress of Peter Farnden, in 1663; she died in 1691. During their marriage the Farnden arms, would have been borne as an escutcheon of pretence in the centre of the arms of Baker, and not quartered with those of her husband until after her death. The date, 1690, is therefore spurious and would have been added to a later copy of a mid-18th century armorial fireback (see no. 16).

Inscription: 16 90

Arms: Baker of Mayfield quartering Farnden of Sedlescombe

Description: Plain plate with scrolled side edges; canted arched rectangular astragal and fillet top moulding; central shield, crest and motto of the hardy family.

Inscription: ARMEE DE FOI HARDI

Arms: Hardy

Description: Central arched rectangular shape formed of fluted Ionic pilasters supporting a rounded arch, with fillet edging, bearing the date between two flower heads; beneath is a fouled anchor within a circlet of rope gathered into eight loops; a phoenix, its wings displayed and inverted, rises from the flames above the rope; mirrored outside each pilaster, a crouching, naked faun, facing inwards, disgorges a vine with bunches of grapes; above each faun a volute forms the top corner of the plate.

Notes: The decorative elements of this fireback have yet to be fully interpreted; the vines disgorged from the mouths of the fauns are related to the 'green man' tradition associated with woodland spirits and symbolising resurrection, the latter echoed by the phoenix, though in the form in which they appear on this fireback they may be a purely decorative device. By contrast, the cabled anchor is the badge of the Lord High Admiral who, in 1608, was Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham (previously Lord Howard of Effingham). A pastiche of this fireback, dated 1633, is also known (no. 1064).

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: 1608