Firebacks

1105mm wide

  1. 1038

    herstmonceux_castle.jpg
    1105 x 550 mm

    Description: Canted rectangular shape; edging formed of lengths of cross-cut dowel (top and sides); inscription across upper centre probably formed of thumb prints; the last digit of the date may be an incomplete 5 rotated left.

    Notes: A crudely executed fireback; the cross-cut dowel used for the edging has not been noted on any other fireback.

    Inscription: 16 wo 15[?]

    Manufactured: in the early 17th century in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Herstmonceux Castle, Herstmonceux, East Sussex, England.

  2. 951

    horsted_keynes, broadhurst 02.jpg
    1105 x 720 mm

    Description: Rectangular; central shield; fleur-de-lys stamp repeated three times across top and once on each side level with shield, all regularly spaced.

    Notes: It is likely that the arms relate to the marriage, in 1541, of Christopher Sackville (c.1519-1559), son of John Sackville of Chiddingly, Sussex, and Constance Colepeper, daughter of Thomas Colepeper of Bedgebury, Kent, one of whose ancestors was the heiress, Elizabeth Hardreshull. The blazon: Sackville - quarterly or and gules, a bend vair; Colepeper - argent a bend engrailed gules; Hardreshull - argent a chevron sable between nine martlets gules, six and three. Christopher Sackville's brother, Sir Richard, owned Horsted Keynes furnace, which may have been where this fireback was cast. A candidate for the earliest English fireback with an example of personal arms.

    Arms: Sackville impaling Colepeper and Hardreshall

    Manufactured: in the mid 16th century possibly at Horsted Keynes Furnace in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Horsted Keynes, West Sussex, England.