Firebacks

830mm wide

  1. 203

    birmingham,_selly hall 02.jpg
    830 x 700 mm

    Description: Rectangular; fillet edging; fillet parallel to top edge separating top quarter; two fillets parallel to sides separating side quarters; halves of date in top corner squares.

    Notes: Numeral style is typical of first half of 18th century.

    Inscription: 17 36

    Manufactured: in 1736 in England.

    Current location: Selly Manor, Birmingham, West Midlands, England.

    (part of the Selly Manor museum group)

  2. 309

    hampton_court 09.jpg
    830 x 1110 mm

    Description: Central panel, cavetto-canted rectangle with arch; bud and annulet edging (in alternate threes); pictorial panel portraying Europa being carried to sea by Zeus, disguised as a bull; two female attendants wave from the right shore; two putti attend, one below with a bow and arrow; trees to right and left; clouds and sun above. Same shaped, fillet-edged border with floral scrolls top and sides; at the bottom, a cartouche bearing EB monogram between oak leaf and acorn fronds; on top, central scallop shell between floral scrolls with dolphin’s heads.

    Notes: The central design is closely based on an illustration by Bernard Salomon, first published in a 1557 edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses and copied in subsequent editions by Virgil Solis (1514-62). The initials, EB, are likely to be those of the pattern maker. The similarity between the execution of this picture and those on firebacks bearing the SHR monogram suggests the possibility of a common source. Ten rivets are the result of later repair.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: EB

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

    Current location: Hampton Court Palace, Richmond, Greater London, England.

    Museum number: 1107 (part of the Royal Collection museum group)

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

  3. 922

    heathfield,_manor farm 02.jpg
    830 x 485 mm

    Description: Rectangular; no edging; arrangement of eight fleur de lys stamps formed of, at top centre, four in a cross shape, with two in line on each side; on each side of the cross arrangement is a naked standing putto stamp.

    Notes: The putti are an unusual addition to what is a quite crudely decorated fireback

    Manufactured: in the late-16th century in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Heathfield, East Sussex, England.

  4. 1016

    mallams,_abingdon_lot_1208_8_sep_2014_830x650a.jpg
    830 x 650 mm

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; ovolo-moulded edging; Tudor royal shield within a cartouche, garter, crown, motto and supporters (crowned lion and dragon); Tudor rose to right of lion’s head, portcullis to left of dragon’s head.

    Notes: The cartouche enclosing the shield is an unusual feature. A recasting. Mallam's auction, Abingdon, 9 Aug 2014, lot 1208 (£100).

    Inscription: Garter and Royal mottoes [not legible]

    Arms: Tudor royal (prob. Elizabeth I)

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

    Current location:, not known.

  5. 560

    pet-m-54.jpg
    830 x 585 mm

    Description: Quasi-arched rectangular shape with symmetrical double fillet rococo edging; high relief pictorial battle scene with mounted knights carrying lances and pennants.

    Notes: The battle scene may have been inspired by more than one classical portayal of a battle in history; likely sources are 'The Defeat of the Pisans at the Tower of St Vicenzo' by Giorgio Vasari and 'Alexander the Great's crossing of the Granicus' by Charles Le Brun. An engraving by Daniel Kellerthaler (1574-1648) has a similar frame enclosing an unidentified cavalry conflict.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Manufactured: in the late-18th to early-19th century in England.

    Current location: Petworth House, Petworth, West Sussex, England.

    Museum number: NT/PET/M/54 (part of the National Trust museum group)