Firebacks

356mm wide

  1. 358

    knowle,_baddesley clinton 03.jpg
    356 x 600 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular central panel with bead edging on a broad fillet; standing on a ground with a peacock behind her, a classically-dressed figure of a female, wearing a crown and holding a sceptre in her right hand, her left hand across her chest; above her, swagged drapery; arched rectangular border with fillet edging; central scallop shell at the top with a descending arrangement of swirled and interlinked lines; at bottom centre, a cartouche bearing the letter ‘N’; on top, two mirrored serpents.

    Notes: The figure is that of Hera/Juno. The pattern maker identified as ‘N’ is likely to have been working in collaboration with pattern makers whose fireback designs are identified with the initials, SHR and EB, and with the maker responsible for patterns made in 1724, some of which bore inscriptions in Welsh.

    Inscription: N

    Manufactured: in the early 18th century in England.

    Current location: Baddesley Clinton Hall, Knowle, Warwickshire, England.

    Museum number: 342886 (part of the National Trust museum group)

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

  2. 868

    new_york, met museum 03.jpg
    356 x 597 mm

    Description: Rectangular with arched, mirrored scrolls on top and central scallop shell, below which are swagged drapes with a central tassel; fillet edging; in a grove, to the left a putto blowing a horn, to the right a semi-naked female figure seated, holding the tail of a fish, with two ?dogs at her feet; at the bottom, narrow panel with symmetrical scrolled foliate decoration.

    Notes: Like others in the series, the scene is not immediately identifiable with a scene in classical mythology.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Manufactured: in the early 18th century in England.

    Current location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000, Fifth Avenue, New York, New York, United States of America.

    Museum number: 08.81.6 (part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art museum group)