Firebacks

355mm wide

  1. 111

    hastings_002.jpg
    355 x 610 mm

    Description: 'Dutch' style; arched rectangular shaped central panel with bead edging, semi-naked figure holding a caduceus in his left hand, standing on a mound with a tree to the right and clouds above; arched rectangular shaped border with fillet edging and an ivy and acanthus leaf pattern; on top an arrangement of swirled foliage.

    Notes: The figure is Hermes/Mercury, one of a set of 'Eight Deities' engraved by Hendrick Goltzius (1592), after Polidoro da Caravaggio. Formerly part of the Ade Collection (from Grove Hill, Hellingly, Sussex).

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Manufactured: in the mid to late 17th century in England.

    Current location: Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, John's Place, Bohemia Road, Hastings, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: HASMG: 1952.51.34 (LA 782) (part of the Hastings Museum museum group)

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