Firebacks

565mm wide

  1. 162

    hastings_museum 045a.jpg
    565 x 420 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular shaped; cavetto-moulded edge; figure of St Paul, a sword in his left hand, holding a viper in his right hand over flames rising from the ground.

    Notes: The scene illustrates an episode in the New Testament, Acts 28: 3. The design shows stylistic similarities to other firebacks where simple, well-executed relief has overlapped the cavetto edging. 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 possibly in the Weald area of England.

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

    Museum number: HASMG: 1952.51.25 (part of the Hastings Museum museum group)

    Citation: Butterfield, W. R., 1916, 'Old Wealden Firebacks', The Connoisseur, 46, pp. 197-209.

    Citation: Hamling, T., 2015, 'Seeing Salvation in the Domestic Hearth in Post-Reformation England' in J. Willis (ed.), Sin and Salvation in Reformation England (Farnham, Ashgate Publishing), 223-44.

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

    Citation: Schubert, H. R., 1957, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry (London, Routledge), pp. 256-264.

  2. 746

    va_22.jpg
    565 x >410 mm

    Description: Fragment (top part only); arched; cavetto-moulded edging; shield, helm, crown and supporters royal house of Scotland.

    Notes: The arms probably pre-date the union of the kingdoms of Scotland and England in 1603. The arched shape and style of execution suggest a possible continental origin for the design.

    Inscription: IN DEFENS

    Arms: Scotland royal pre 1603

    Manufactured: in the late-16th century in England.

    Current location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington & Chelsea, Greater London, England.

    Museum number: 891.1901 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

  3. 775

    va_50.jpg
    565 x 685 mm

    Description: Arched rectangle; ovol-moulded edging; pictorial scene of a begowned figure waving to figures standing beneath a portico with a sun behind, other figures opening a door to his left, above which is the shape of the man in the moon; blottom left, a computer; bottom right, a painter's palette.

    Notes: A farewell gift to William Vaughan, Reader in Art History at University College, London (later professor of the History of Art at Birkbeck College).

    Inscription: WILLIAM VAUGHAN / 1972 UNIVERSITY 1986 / COLLEGE

    Manufactured: in 1987 in England.

    Current location: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington & Chelsea, Greater London, England.

    Museum number: M.15-1994 (part of the Victoria & Albert Museum museum group)

  4. 788

    westerham,_squerryes court 02.jpg
    565 x 695 mm

    Description: Rectangular central panel bearing an anchor with coiled rope between two fleurs de lys, below which are two roses; this arrangement is repeated alongside; above, a semicircular arch contains the initials between two roses as in the central panel, with the date above; where the arch meets the central panel there is an arc across each corner; The top and sides panels are edged with simulated twisted rope.

    Notes: One of an unusual series formed from separate panels arranged, in this instance, with the vertical panel repeated.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 1588 / IFC

    Manufactured: in 1588 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Squerryes Court, Westerham, Kent, England.

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