Firebacks

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). Von den Driesch (p.520) illustrates the same central image within an L7C border.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: L8G

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)