Firebacks

Description: Arched plate; ovolo moulding edging; shield, supporters, coronet, helm, crest and motto of Viscount Montague; quarterly Browne, Albini, Fitzalan, Fitzalan of Clare, Warren, Maltravers, Nevill, Montagu, Monthermer, Inglethorpe, Burghe, Delapole, Bradeston, Tiptoft, Charleton and Kent (Plantagenet); supporters: two bears collared and chained; the crest: an eagle, the wings elevated and displayed.

Notes: The arms of either the 2nd (Anthony-Maria Browne, succ. 1592-1629) or 3rd viscount (Francis Browne succ. 1629-1682) - the 1st viscount was a Knight of the Garter and no garter is shown; the style of the modelling bears similarities to that on the 1618 series of firebacks and may be the work of the same pattern-maker.

Inscription: 16 / VERITATE DUCE [Be led by Truth]

Arms: Viscount Montague

Description: Arched rectangular central panel with bead-and-pellet edging (top and sides); on a ground between two plants, their flowers upstanding, a gadrooned flower vase with two, scrolled handles, tulips and other flowers issuing from the narrow neck; arched rectangular border with fillet edging; mirrored descending flower swags; along a rectangular bottom panel with fillet edging a symmetrical arrangement of swirled foliage; on top, two mirrored sea serpents; at the sides, a narrow vertical extension bordered with a fillet and with bead infill; at the base, a plain extension panel.

Notes: The presence of tulips suggest a Dutch origin for the pattern of this fireback, although the presence of several examples in England suggest that it was produced there rather than on the Continent. One of several very similar designs, varied by the forms of the vases, the style of the flowers and by their dimensions.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Arched rectangular central panel with bead edging; pictorial scene of Venus, naked and kneeling, and Adonis, standing, holding a spear in his left hand, with Cupid to the left, and a hound and a quiver of arrows below to the right; arched rectangular border with fillet edging; at top of arch, grape bunches; at each side, a festoon of fruit suspended on a ribbon from a lion's head; at the bottom, an oval cartouche between flowers; on top, an urn from which descends a dolphin on each side of the arch.

Notes: The scene is based on the painting (c.1635) of Venus and Adonis by Peter Paul Rubens; the same central panel is known with several different borders.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Description: Rectangular; cavetto-moulded edging; armorial of France modern in front of a cartouche; above, an English royal crown between two small lion masks; two lion rampant supporters.

Notes: Believed to be associated with the marriage, in 1625, of Charles I with Princess Henrietta Maria of France, the juxtaposition of the arms of France with an English crown is seen on several firebacks, normally with a distinctive ornate edging; on this fireback is the unusual addition of two lion supporters, which are heraldically incorrect.

Arms: France modern

Description: Flattened arched rectangular shape; cavetto moulded edge all round; armorial; arms of Browne family of Brenchley, Kent: Gules, a griffin passant or, a chief of the second; Crest: a vulture proper, wings endorsed, displuming a mallard’s wings.

Notes: John Browne, gunfounder, was granted arms in 1626. His principal furnace was in Brenchley parish, Kent. The royal gunfounder 1615-51, he petitioned the Crown for a monopoly of casting firebacks in 1633.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Arms: Browne of Brenchley (John Browne)

Description: Low-arched shape within broad fillet edging marked with a repeated leaf pattern ascending toward the top; on an incised criss-cross field a Tudor royal shield, quarterly France Modern and England, supported by a stylised, scaly dragon and greyhound and surmounted by a crown, all resting on a two-stepped compartment with cavetto- and astragal-moulded edging at the top.

Notes: Pastiche 'Tudor' design by George Shaw of Saddleworth, Lancashire, c.1850, possibly intended to be passed off as genuine Tudor. Another casting in this form is in Cheetham's Library, Manchester. A variant exists without the leaf pattern on the edging and the 'scales' on the dragon. Firebacks of the same armorial design within a different, arched rectangular, edging are also known.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Arms: Tudor royal