Firebacks

Description: Arched rectangular shape; rope edging (top and sides); Tudor royal shield, garter, crown and supporters (crowned lion and dragon); date split by crown; lower right, initial formed of twisted rope with fleur-de-lys terminals; small fleur-de-lys stamp repeated 14 times across top edge and arch; fleur-de-lys cross repeated six times across lower part of plate.

Notes: Identical arms can be seen on at least two other firebacks; minor variations in the position of individual elements indicate that the garter and shield, crown, and each supporter were separately stamped. The lack of definition in the decoration suggests that this is a copy made from an earlier casting.

Inscription: 1595 / I H

Arms: Tudor royal - Elizabeth I

Description: Rectangular shape with ovolo-moulded edging; within the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, a central shield of the arms of Spain: quarterly Castile and Leon, Aragon and Aragon-Sicily, with an escutcheon of Portugal; in base Austria, Burgundy ancient, Burgundy modern and Brabant with an escutcheon of Flanders impaling Tyrol; above, a crown; supporters: two golden lions rampant; below the shield, the date, 1595; above the crown, the inscription: Dominus mihi adiutor (the Lord is my helper).

Notes: The arms of King Philip II of Spain following the unification with Portugal, as used in the Spanish Netherlands. Part of the bequest to the Victoria and Albert Museum by Lieut. Colonel G. B. Croft-Lyons in 1926.

Copies of this fireback are known.

Inscription: DOMINVS MIHI ADIVTOR

Arms: King Philip II of Spain (Spanish Netherlands)