Firebacks

Shape: complex individual

  1. 1060

    london_metropolitan archives 01a.jpg
    ? x ? mm

    Description: Central shield bearing a lion rampant reguardant, with esquire's helm and crest of a seated hawk, surrounded by foliage and tasselled ribbons; twisted rope edging at each side; the shape of the fireback is dictated by the decorative elements; initials split by shield, the date similarly split below the initials.

    Notes: Drawing of a fireback from old premises, formerly a baker's, opposite 20 Love Lane (later known as Lovat Lane), which ran between Eastcheap and Lower Thames Street; the arms appear to be those of the Morrice family (blazon: gules, a lion rampant reguardant or). Drawn by Charles Raymond Booth Barrett, 1891. A fireback of unique design.

    Inscription: W M / 15 86

    Arms: Morrice or Maurice

    Manufactured: in 1586 possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: not known.

    Museum number: SC/GL/PR/370/LOV/1/q7706298 (part of the London Metropolitan Archives museum group)

    Citation: Windyer Morris, G. T., 4 Oct 1902, 'Arms on Fireback', Notes and Queries, 9th series, 10, p. 278.

  2. 506

    parham_001.jpg
    920 x 1070 mm

    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.