Firebacks

622mm wide

  1. 168

    hastings_051.jpg
    622 x 705 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Quasi-arched shape; straight fillet edging to sides and bottom, symmetrical, stepped cavetto, ovolo, cavetto and double arched on top; central pictorial scene of a female and male seated on a couch, both in 18th century dress, with swirled floral border; swirled floral base panel separated by a fillet; two sea serpents on top.

    Notes: The dress of the figures portrayed suggests a late-18th century date

    Manufactured: in the late-18th century in England.

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

    Museum number: HASMG: 1910.36 (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).

  2. 983

    unknown_83 622x749.jpg
    622 x 749 mm

    Description: Arched shape; cavetto-moulded edge; Tudor royal shield, crown, garter (with inscription anti-clockwise) and supporters (dragon and greyhound); crowned rose on left, and crowned portcullis on right side of crown; the supporters stand on a horizontal fillet, to the bottom right of which is the end of an illegible inscription.

    Notes: There are several firebacks with the Tudor royal arms that were probably produced in the Spanish Netherlands, perhaps illustrating the association between England and Spain through the marriage of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. The firebacks differ in several small details, such as the form and rotation of the Garter motto, the style of the crown, the positioning of the supporters in relation to the Garter, and the form and size of the crowned rose and portcullis.

    Inscription: HONI SOIT QVI MAL I PENSE / [illeg.]

    Arms: Tudor royal

    Manufactured: in the mid-16th century in the Wallonia area of Luxemburg.

    Current location: not known.