Firebacks

Shape: rectangular with canted top corners

117 results

  1. 690

    smallhythe_place.jpg
    1280 x 470 mm

    Description: Canted rectangle; plain edges; broad horizontal fillet dividing the plate in two just above the side angles, with vertical fillets to top corners enclosing date and initials.

    Notes: Uncharacteristically crude for the period.

    Inscription: IS / 16 60

    Manufactured: in 1660 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Smallhythe Place, Small Hythe Road, Tenterden, Kent, England.

    Museum number: 1117951 (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).

  2. 892

    sothebys_08-11-06 1910mm x 590mm.jpg
    910 x 590 mm

    Description: Canted rectangular shape; plain edging with inset ?leather strap twisted round dowel (top and sides); top centre, date probably in stamped numerals; twisted leather strap saltire repeated three times across middle of plate; pair of stamped initials, formed of a Roman 'W' and a Gothic 'd', above each outer saltire.

    Notes: Sotheby's sale London 27 November 2006, lot 324; formerly at Brunger, Kent (near Tenterden).

    Inscription: 1610 / WD WD

    Manufactured: in 1610 in England.

    Current location: not known.

  3. 693

    stawley,_cothay manor 02.jpg
    765 x 490 mm

    Description: Canted rectangle; twisted rope edging (top and sides); a shield repeated five times, each bearing three arrows palewise, points down, with a molet (star) above the middle arrow, two over three.

    Notes: Three arrows form the arms of several families, so identification of the arms is not possible without the associated colouring. The star is likely to be a mark of cadency, granted to a third son. Four rivets along the base may relate to earlier repair. The fireback was formerly at Chisenbury Priory, Wiltshire. A variant with three shields (W 740mm x H 480mm) was lot 530 at Brettells auction, Newport, Salop, 1 March 2022 and again as lot 457 on 2 May 2023.

    Arms: Not known

    Manufactured: in the late-16th to early-17th century in England.

    Current location: Cothay Manor, Stawley, Somerset, England.

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

  4. 697

    stroud_museum 01.jpg
    605 x 480 mm

    Description: Canted rectangle; embattled, cavetto moulded edging; central tree with fruit and leaves, a snake, facing right, with a human face in profile entwined, in ‘S’ shape, around the trunk and lower branches; to the left, a naked, bearded male figure holding an apple in his left hand and a branch in his right for modesty; to the right a naked female figure with apple and branch also; the date split either side of the snake and tree trunk.

    Notes: Similarities with an armorial in the date, numerals and edging suggest a common pattern-maker.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 16 19

    Manufactured: in 1619 in England.

    Current location: Stroud District Museum, Stroud, Gloucestershire, England.

    Museum number: STGC 2371 (part of the Stroud Museum museum group)

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

  5. 1167

    tennants_auctioneers_20_mar_2015_lot_781.jpg
    700 x ~435 mm

    Description: Canted quasi-rectangular shape; no edging; parallel with top edge, initials in triad to left, separated from date by a small, ill-defined flower stamp.

    Notes: The serifed character set is boldly impressed, although the S is indistinct, suggesting that some of the moulding sand may have filled the impression before casting. The indentations on each side were cut to accommodate mouldings. Tennants Auctioneers sale, Leyburn, North Yorkshire, 20 March 2015, lot 781.

    Inscription: ISM [triad] 1611

    Manufactured: in 1611 in England.

    Current location: not known.

  6. 860

    terry_sparks 02a.jpg
    695 x 490 mm

    Description: Canted rectangle; fillet edging (top and sides); top centre, initials, above date, between repeated fleur-de-lys stamp; from top corners to bottom corners, repeated V-shape pattern formed of stamped short fillets, with an L-shape inserted between the top two Vs on each side.

    Notes: The fleurs de lys are of a distinctive style seen on a small group of firebacks.

    Inscription: RH / 1662

    Manufactured: in 1662 in the Forest of Dean area of England.

    Current location: not known.

  7. 861

    terry_sparks_03a.jpg
    605 x 445 mm

    Description: Canted rectangle; twisted rope edging (top and sides); top centre, date.

    Inscription: 1697

    Manufactured: in 1697 in England.

    Current location: not known.

  8. 1258

    tetbury,_31_long_street_870x500.jpg
    ~870 x 500 mm

    Description: Broken and fragmentary; canted quasi-rectangular shape, with sides inclined; twisted rope edging; top centre, date with initials below separated by a fleur-de-lys; seven fleurs-de-lys down each side, pints perpendicular to rope edging; a fleur beneath each initial, possibly other fleurs and another initial missing in between.

    Notes: The fleurs-de-lys are of a distinctive form apparently unique to this series of firebacks.

    Inscription: 1628 / S G

    Manufactured: in 1628 in the Forest of Dean area of England.

    Current location: 31 Long Street, Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England.

  9. 1089

    ticehurst,_authentic reclamation 02.jpg
    850 x 505 mm

    Description: Canted quasi-rectangular shape with no edging; straight length of ?dowel placed parallel to top and to each side; square stamp with fillet edge and four diagonally quartered squares repeated five times, three rotated with sides 45 degrees to the vertical in top corners and slightly left of lower centre, and two, unrotated, repeated twice in bottom corners.

    Notes: The square stamps may be pastry moulds.

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

    Current location: Authentic Reclamation, Lymden Lane, Ticehurst, East Sussex, England.

  10. 722

    ticehurst,_whiligh.jpg
    955 x 605 mm

    Description: Canted rectangular shape; twisted rope edging (top and sides); shield with recessed edges repeated seven times (3 and 4): a fess between three mullets of six points.

    Notes: The arms are those of Courthope of Whiligh in Ticehurst; blazon: argent, a fess azure between three estoiles sable (two and one). Shown are molets of six points which have straight rays instead of (properly) estoiles which have wavy ones. However, the 1643/4 iron graveslab of David Barham of Snape, in Wadhurst church, has the same arms (also with molets instead of estoiles), which were those of his mother who was a Courthope.

    Arms: Courthope, of Whiligh in Ticehurst

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

    Current location: in private hands, Ticehurst, East Sussex, England.

    Citation: Fitzgerald-Uniacke, R. G., 1914, 'The Barhams of Shoesmiths in Wadhurst', Sussex Archaeological Collections, 56, pp. 110-160.