Firebacks

1420mm wide

  1. 208

    bray,_ockwells manor 03.jpg
    1420 x 440 mm

    Description: Canted rectangle; twisted rope edging (top and sides); quasi-symmetrical arrangement of four fleurs-de-lys in star, top centre, two fleurs each side along top edge, single fleurs beneath outer top fleurs; short rope length in vertical and inverted 'V' shapes each side between top fleurs; ?dagger handle irregularly positioned centre left and right.

    Notes: The style and shape of the fleurs-de-lys is unique to a particular series of firebacks, suggesting the same source; the 'V' shapes may have apotropaic significance. A sketch of this fireback c.1891 is in the collection of J. Starkie Gardner's sketch books at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Archive of Art and Design (AAD/2014/8); at the time of drawing it was stated to be in the ownership of one Simmons, a furniture dealer of Lewes.

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

    Current location: in private hands, Cox Green, Berkshire, England.

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