Firebacks

1020mm wide

  1. 1122

    accrington,_garden street 1020x690.jpg
    1020 x 690 mm

    Description: Plain rectangular plate with cyma reversa, or ogee, moulding on top and sides.

    Notes: A base board without other decoration. Other firebacks may have been cast using it.

    Manufactured: in the 17th century in England.

    Current location: 10 Garden Street, Accrington, Lancashire, England.

  2. 379

    lewes,_sussex arch soc 014.jpg
    1020 x 620 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Rectangular; single moulded edge on top and sides; bold date and initials, formed from large individual characters, on same line across full width of plate; otherwise plain. Side lifting lug on top right.

    Notes: The style of the numerals, particularly the 6 and 5, can be seen on a smaller fireback of 1656. Lifting handles are only seen on a few firebacks. Formerly part of the J. H. Every collection.

    Inscription: 1653 IHA

    Manufactured: in 1653 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Anne of Cleves House, Southover High Street, Lewes, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: 1944.24.044 (part of the Sussex Archaeological Society museum group)

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

  3. 465

    little_horsted, college farm 03.jpg
    1020 x 870 mm

    Description: Rectangular with three-faced arch; ogee moulded edging; top centre, overlapping, crossed staples arranged diagonally, each pointing to a bottom corner.

    Notes: The crossed staple is the badge of the Nevill family, and this fireback came from Eridge Park, the seat of the Marquess of Abergavenny.

    Manufactured: in the 18th century possibly in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Little Horsted, East Sussex, England.

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

  4. 733

    va_09.jpg
    1020 x 650 mm

    Description: Rectangular with canted top corners and a triangular extension from the top edge; twisted rope edges to all sides except bottom; a circular wafering iron or butter mould stamp, incorporating a square design with a fleur-de-lys on each side, repeated thrice, one at the apex and one below each of the canted corners; two inverted ‘V’ rope shapes overlapping to make an ‘M’ below top stamp.

    Notes: The inverted double 'V' may be apotropaic, invoking the protection of the Virgin Mary; the circular stamp has also been noted on a Pelham-associated fireback of 1642 (no. 1204) which may suggest that it was a product of one of the family's ironworks.

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

    Current location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington & Chelsea, Greater London, England.

    Museum number: 895.1901 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

    Citation: Easton, T. & Hodgkinson, J. S., 2013, 'Apotropaic Symbols on Cast-Iron Firebacks', Jnl. of the Antique Metalware Soc., 21, pp. 14-33.

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

    Citation: Page, S. & Wallace, M. (eds.), 2018, Spellbound (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum), p. 72.