Firebacks

Shape: rectangular with round arch

274 results

  1. 901

    unknown_42  laughing lion 787x700mm.jpg
    787 x 700 mm

    Description: Quasi-Arched rectangular shape with cyma reversa shoulders; ovolo edging; stylised lion passant guardant; crowned rose with leaf and stem on left, crowned fleur de lys on right, thistle with leaves above centre; three right-facing scrolls at base; down-facing scroll, with staple, on right side; date split between bottom corners; initials below date, bottom right.

    Notes: Blatantly Royalist in its symbolism, a variant (no. 763) is dated (perhaps less convincingly) 1649. Numeral style, initials, leaf depiction and the stapled scroll are typical features of firebacks made from patterns by the same maker. A later version of the same subject, but with a different shaped plate and without the fleur-de-lys, is also known (see 'Royalist series'). M. A. Lower writes of this design of fireback being cast at Waldron Furnace in Sussex (Lower, 1849, p.219).

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 16 41 / IM

    Manufactured: in 1641 possibly at Brede Furnace in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Wandsworth, London, England.

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

    Citation: Lower, M. A., 1849, 'Iron Works of the County of Sussex', Sussex Archaeological Collections, 2, pp. 169-220 (esp. pp. 188-9).

  2. 865

    unknown_47 760x710.jpg
    760 x ?710 mm

    Description: Arched rectangle; twisted rope edging (top and sides); central date at bottom of arch.

    Inscription: 1670

    Manufactured: in 1670 in England.

    Current location: not known.

  3. 872

    unknown_55 1194x724.jpg
    1194 x 724 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; rebated fillet edging (top and sides); word 'BERSHAM' (AM ligature) in arch; initials triad 'C LL S' (LL ligature) in left shoulder; date on two lines in right shoulder.

    Notes: The initials are likely to be those of Charles Lloyd of Dolobran, Montgomeryshire, and Sarah (née Crowley) his wife. Lloyd ran Bersham Furnace, near Wrexham, from 1710 until 1728. Smelting iron with coke began at Bersham in 1721, so it is likely that this fireback was made of coke-smelted iron.

    Inscription: BERSHAM / LL 17 / C S 22

    Manufactured: in 1722 at Bersham Furnace in the North Wales area of Wales.

    Current location: Wrexham Museum, Wrexham, Clwyd, Wales.

    (part of the Wrexham County Borough Museums museum group)

  4. 877

    unknown_56 pollen arms 580x570.jpg
    580 x 570 mm

    Description: Low arched rectangle; astragal and stepped fillet edging; slanted shield, helm and mantling; crest missing; at bottom, date split either side of shield.

    Notes: The arms are of the Pollen family of Redenham, Hampshire; blazon: azure, on a bend cotised or between six lozenges argent each charged with an escallop sable, five escallops vert.

    Inscription: 19 27

    Arms: Pollen of Andover, Hampshire

    Manufactured: in 1927 in England.

    Current location: not known.

    Citation: Fox-Davies, A. C., 1929, Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-armour (London, Hurst & Blackett).

  5. 253

    unknown_65 762 x 686.jpg
    762 x 686 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto moulded edging; garter enclosing Stuart royal arms, with supporters, crown and motto; date split either side of garter buckle; rectangular extension panel at bottom.

    Notes: An altered casting from a 1641 original (no. 445), the last part of the date having disproportionate numerals; often copied. From the detail of the relief, probably an early casting.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: C R / HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE / 16 64 / DIEV ET MON DROIT

    Arms: English Stuart royal

    Manufactured: in 1664 possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: not known.

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

  6. 1054

    unknown_69_vernon_895x864a.jpg
    895 x 864 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; chamfered edging; 'renaissance' style shield with floriate decoration; incised heraldic design.

    Notes: The arms are of Sir John Herbert Vernon Bt. impaling those of his wife, Elizabeth Bagnall; Blazon: (Vernon) Or, on a fess azure between two crosses moline gules three garbs of the field, a canton of a baronet; (Bagnall) Ermine, two bars or, over all a lion rampant azure. The fireback dates from between 1919, when Sir John inherited the baronetcy and his death in 1933.

    Arms: Vernon impaling Bagnall

    Manufactured: in the early-20th century in England.

    Current location: not known.

    Citation: Fox-Davies, A. C., 1929, Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-armour (London, Hurst & Blackett).

  7. 965

    unknown_76 820x880 nicolas pierre de besset de la chapelle milon.jpg
    820 x 880 mm

    Description: Upon a moulded base plinth, wide scrolled side double fillets with foliage about the scrolls and suspended bell flowers in chain above; central foliate cartouche behind an oval shield surmounted by a viscomte's coronet; on top, an arch rising from horizontal moulding on each side.

    Notes: Blazon: Azure, a chevron Argent between three estoiles Or, all surmounted by a bar of the second; characteristic of designs illustrated by architects such as Daniel Marot; the texturing on the shield indicates the azure tincture. See Carpentier p. 234, fig. 644.

    Arms: Besset de la Chapelle

    Manufactured: in the late-17th to early-18th century in France.

    Current location: not known.

    Citation: Carpentier, H., 1912, Plaques de Cheminées (Paris, published by the author).

  8. 982

    unknown_82 720x900.jpg
    720 x 900 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape with demi-bullnose edging (top and sides); 'AD' curved in arch, with straight date below; central letter 'H' in the form of a horse's bit, with initials 'F' and 'J' respectively above and below; two lengths of rope with tasselled ends looped and tied symmetrically around the 'H' and on each side.

    Notes: A finely moulded personal fireback with an equestrian connection.

    Inscription: AD / 1909 / HFJ

    Manufactured: in 1909 in England.

    Current location: not known.

  9. 990

    unknown_87.jpg
    >730 x >700 mm

    Description: Complex quasi-arched rectangular shape with fillet edging; bell flowers descending from the top of the arch; double fillet scrolls at the side with cockerel terminals; under the arch, a royal crown surmounting a counter-posed double 'L' monogram enclosing a human mask with a sunburst; below, a table draped with a cloth bearing a circular royal shield of France within palm leaves.

    Notes: A very elaborate and symbolic design alluding to the Sun King, Louis XIV.

    Manufactured: in the late-17th to early-18th century in France.

    Current location: not known.

  10. 989

    unknown_88 650x780.jpg
    650 x 780 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape with fillet edging; within an arched rectangular border alternating repeated acanthus leaves, and a floral cartouche, a heart-shaped shield of the royal arms of France, surmounted by a royal crown and within splayed olive branches.

    Arms: France Royal

    Manufactured: in the late-17th century in France.

    Current location: not known.