Firebacks

1540mm wide

  1. 1003

    horsham,_11 causeway.jpg
    1540 x 1480 mm

    Description: Large plain arched rectangular fireback with astragal edging on the top and sides.

    Notes: Exceptionally large fireback, finely cast.

    Manufactured: in the late-18th to early-19th century in England.

    Current location: in private hands, Horsham, West Sussex, England.

  2. 1316

    northiam,_great_dixter_1.jpg
    1540 x 770 mm

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging on top and sides; cavetto-moulded-edged rectangle top centre (left side missing), enclosing date between initials; 14 shields of Ayloffe impaling Sulyard in three rows (5-4-5); Ayloffe: sable, a lion rampant Or, collared gules, between three crosses formy of the second; Sulyard: argent, a chevron gules between three pheons inverted sable.

    Notes: William Ayloffe (c1535-1584) of Bretons, Hornchurch, Essex, Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench, married (c1560) Jane, dau. of Sir Eustace Sulyard, of Runwell, Essex. The initials 'CT' are likely to be those of Charles Tyler, a founder whose working life and that of his family have strong parallels with the occurrence of these firebacks. The excrescences between some of the shields are the result of inexpert ladling of the iron during casting.

    Inscription: C.1.6.1.2.T

    Arms: Ayloffe impaling Sulyard (William Ayloffe of Bretons, Hornchurch)

    Manufactured: in 1612 possibly at Bedgebury Furnace, Goudhurst in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Great Dixter, Northiam, East Sussex, England.

    Citation: Cowper, H. S., 1911, 'A Series of Kentish Heraldic Firebacks and the Identification of the Arms', Archaeologia Cantiana, 29, pp. 40-6.

    Citation: Hodgkinson, J. S., 2018, 'A series of Kentish firebacks and the possible identification of their founder', Archaeologia Cantiana, 139, pp. 312-15.