Firebacks

Shape: arched rectangular

207 results

  1. 142

    hastings_025.jpg
    559 x 483 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shaped; cavetto moulded edging (top and sides); a cabled anchor palewise, behind it the inscription on a scroll parallel with the anchor flukes.

    Notes: The inscription is a quotation from Psalms 139: 1: 'Domine, probasti me et cognovisti me' - Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me. Another version of the same design may come from the same source. Formerly part of the Ade Collection (from Grove Hill, Hellingly, Sussex).

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: PROBASTI ME [Thou hast searched me]

    Manufactured: in the mid to late 17th century possibly at Brede Furnace in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, John's Place, Bohemia Road, Hastings, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: HASMG: 1952.51.38 (part of the Hastings Museum museum group)

    Citation: Griffith, H. (ed.), 1886, 'Notes and Queries No. 3: Sussex Iron Fireback', Sussex Archaeological Collections, 34, p. 259.

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

  2. 146

    hastings_029.jpg
    780 x 570 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto moulded edging; shield, helm, crest, supporters, mantling and motto of the Corporation of the City of London; initials split by crest; date split at ends of motto.

    Notes: Shield: Argent, a cross gules, in the first quarter a sword in pale point upwards of the last; crest: on a wreath argent and gules a dragon's sinister wing argent, charged on the underside with a cross throughout gules; supporters: on either side a dragon argent charged on the undersides of the wings with a cross throughout gules; motto: Domine Dirige Nos - Lord Direct Us; the earliest illustration of the arms in this form was in 1609, but their use is older. Formerly part of the Ade Collection (from Grove Hill, Hellingly, Sussex).

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: F W / 16 DOMINE DIRIGE NOS 59

    Arms: Corporation of the City of London

    Manufactured: in 1659 possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, John's Place, Bohemia Road, Hastings, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: HASMG: 1952.51.53 (part of the Hastings Museum museum group)

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

  3. 162

    hastings_museum 045a.jpg
    565 x 420 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shaped; cavetto-moulded edge; figure of St Paul, a sword in his left hand, holding a viper in his right hand over flames rising from the ground.

    Notes: The scene illustrates an episode in the New Testament, Acts 28: 3. The design shows stylistic similarities to other firebacks where simple, well-executed relief has overlapped the cavetto edging. Formerly part of the Ade Collection (from Grove Hill, Hellingly, Sussex).

    Copies of this fireback are known.

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

    Current location: Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, John's Place, Bohemia Road, Hastings, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: HASMG: 1952.51.25 (part of the Hastings Museum museum group)

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

    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: Schubert, H. R., 1957, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry (London, Routledge), pp. 256-264.

  4. 190

    hawkshead,_hill top.jpg
    760 x 840 mm

    Description: Arched rectangle; bevelled edge to arch and top of shoulders; initials at centre top of arch, in triangle 'S' at top; date below initials.

    Notes: Possibly the work of David Robertson (1716-93), the King's Smith, whose iron grates are commonly to be found in houses designed by the prominent Scottish architects, Robert, John and James Adam, of whom he was a kinsman; the form of the plate is typical of grate-backs Robertson made in a variety of sizes, notably at Dumfries House, Ayrshire, although the lack of evidence of fixings suggest that this may have been made to be free-standing. Until 1756/7 Robertson had his forge in a tenement in Niddery's Wynd, Edinburgh, between High Street and Cow Gate, next door to John Adam's premises, although it is not known if he had a foundry there.

    Inscription: S / W A / 1745

    Manufactured: in 1745 possibly in the Edinburgh area of Scotland.

    Current location: Hill Top, Sawrey, Hawkshead, Hawkshead, Cumbria, England.

    Museum number: 641831 (part of the National Trust museum group)

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

  5. 191

    helston,_godolphin house 01.jpg
    770 x 640 mm

    Description: Arched rectangle; cavetto moulded edging; Tudor royal shield, Garter and crown, with crowned lion and dragon supporters; motto along bottom; Tudor rose to left of crown, portcullis to right.

    Notes: This painted fireback is reputed to have been a gift from King Henry VIII to the second Sir William Godolphin, who was present at the Siege of Boulogne in 1544 with a party of Godolphin tin miners.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: HONI SOIT QVI MAL E PENSE / DIEU ET MON DROIT

    Arms: Tudor royal (Elizabeth I)

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

    Current location: Godolphin House, Helston, Cornwall, England.

    Museum number: 169480 (part of the National Trust museum group)

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

  6. 1075

    hereford,_the_old_house_01a.jpg
    490 x 550 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto-moulded edging (top and sides); English Stuart Royal arms, garter, supporters, crown and motto; altered date above crown.

    Notes: This design, which probably dates from 1619, has been used to cast composite firebacks with a variety of altered dates ranging from 1629 to 1662.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 1639 [illegible Garter and royal mottoes]

    Arms: English Stuart royal

    Manufactured: in 1639 in the Forest of Dean area of England.

    Current location: Black and White House Museum, The Old House, High Town, Hereford, Herefordshire, England.

  7. 320

    hever_castle 02.jpg
    830 x 890 mm

    Description: Low arched rectangular shape; broad rebated fillet edging; stylised Tudor royal shield, crown and supporters (dragon and greyhound); Tudor rose in top left corner; portcullis in top right corner.

    Notes: Pastiche 'Tudor' design by George Shaw of Saddleworth, Lancashire, c.1850, possibly intended to be passed off as genuine Tudor. A fireback of the same armorial design within a different, arched edging is at Wirkworth Castle, Northumberland (see no. 1246).

    Arms: Tudor royal

    Manufactured: in the mid 19th century possibly in the Lancashire area of England.

    Current location: Hever Castle, Hever, Kent, England.

    Citation: Brooke, S., 2022, 'Appendix IV George Shaw (1810-1876)', Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture, 8, 3, pp. 162-183.

    Citation: Foyle, J. & Lindfield, P., 2021, 'A Forger's Folly?: George Shaw's Productions for Cheetham's Library, Manchester', The British Art Journal, 21, 3, pp. 42-50.

  8. 915

    honiton,_marwood house 02b.jpg
    540 x 578 mm

    Description: Rectangular with superimposed arch; embattled, cavetto-moulded edging, with the top edge of the rectangle interrupted; quartered shield, helm, crest and mantling.

    Notes: The arms appear to be those of the family of Armeston of Burbage, Leicestershire, possibly Thomas Armeston (c1606-85), 2nd son of Thomas Armeston (d.1640), sometime MP for Leicestershire: 1st and 4th (Armeston) sable a chevron between three spear heads argent with a crescent for difference, 2nd (unknown) three chevronels with a rose in a canton, 3rd (unknown) a fess between two chevronels, a crescent for difference over all. The Armeston crest is a dragon's head erased vert scaled or and charged with a crescent of the same for difference; the crescent is the mark of cadency for the second son; in this instance the arms appear to be of a second son descended from a second son in an earlier generation. The embattled edging and superimposed arch are features of a series of firebacks dated 1619. However, the style of the mantling is typical of a small group of firebacks noted in Herefordshire.

    Arms: Armeston, of Burbage, Leicestershire

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

    Current location: in private hands, Honiton, Devon, England.

  9. 1003

    horsham,_11 causeway.jpg
    1540 x 1480 mm

    Description: Large plain arched rectangular fireback with astragal edging on the top and sides.

    Notes: Exceptionally large fireback, finely cast.

    Manufactured: in the late 18th to early 19th century in England.

    Current location: in private hands, Horsham, West Sussex, England.

  10. 329

    horsham_museum 07.jpg
    731 x 483 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; simulated twisted rope edging (top & sides); central, symmetrical arrangement of a fleur-de-lys between two diamond stamps with two small cross-cut squares below, and a triad of dots outside; above, a haphazard arrangement of date, at top, above the initials, with a rose and crown to the left, and another fleur to the right.

    Notes: Almost certainly an altered copy of a similar fireback dated 1613, some of the features of which have remained.

    Inscription: 1637 / ILE

    Manufactured: in 1637 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Horsham Museum, Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex, England.

    (part of the Horsham Museum museum group)