Firebacks

858mm wide

  1. 310

    hampton_court 10.jpg
    858 x 1196 mm

    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; descending swags of fruit and seashells enclosing the central panel; inscription in an oval cartouche at the bottom; on top, a Holy Roman Imperial crown between two mirrored dolphins, heads downward.

    Notes: The scene is based on the painting (c.1635) of Venus and Adonis by Peter Paul Rubens; the initials, L8G, denote the style of border - other firebacks having the same inscription have the same border - and other borders are denoted by similar inscriptions (e.g. L6C and L7C).

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: L8G

    Manufactured: in the late 17th century in the Siegerland area of Germany.

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

    Museum number: 1042 (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).

  2. 1191

    ray_01.jpg
    858 x 491 mm

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (top and sides only); eight shields of Ayloffe impaling Sulyard in three rows, 3-2-3; Ayloffe: sable, a lion rampant Or, collared gules, between three crosses formy of the second; Sulyard: argent, a chevron gules between three pheons inverted sable.

    Notes: William Ayloffe (c1535-1584) of Hornchurch, Essex, Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench, married (c1560) Jane, dau. of Sir Eustace Sulyard, of Runwell, Essex. Illustrated in Lloyd (1925).

    Arms: Ayloffe impaling Sulyard (William Ayloffe of Bretons, Hornchurch)

    Manufactured: in the early 17th century in the Weald area of England.

    Current location:.

    Citation: Cowper, H. S., 1911, 'A Series of Kentish Heraldic Firebacks and the Identification of the Arms', Archaeologia Cantiana, 29, pp. 40-6.

    Citation: Lloyd, N., 1925, 'Domestic Ironwork I', Architectural Review, 58, pp. 58-67.