Firebacks

Manufactured in 1603

  1. 179

    hastings_066.jpg
    840 x 560 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Rectangular; double fillet moulded edging; top centre, on a rectangular block, shield of the arms of the Fowle family - (Gules) a lion passant guardant between three roses (Or); on each side, two rectangles, each containing a helm and the crest of the Fowles - an Arm in armour holding a Battle axe issuant from a Ducal Coronet, above each being the date, 1603, and below each the initials, WF. Across the lower half of the fireback are two solid triangular prisms of iron.

    Notes: The stamps relate to William Fowle (1568-1634), ironmaster of Riverhall furnace. The shield stamp also appears on grave slabs in Wadhurst and Frant churches and on an unprovenanced graveslab in Maidstone Museum. The iron prisms were included, perhaps, to retain heat and to prevent the fireback from cracking. Formerly part of the Ade Collection (from Grove Hill, Hellingly, Sussex).

    Inscription: 1603 WF [twice]

    Arms: William Fowle, of Frant and Wadhurst

    Manufactured: in 1603 probably at Riverhall Furnace, Wadhurst in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, John's Place, Bohemia Road, Hastings, East Sussex, England.

    Museum number: HASMG: 1952.51.59 (part of the Hastings Museum museum group)

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

  2. 665

    rolvenden,_rawlinson house 03.jpg
    1530 x 750 mm

    Description: Rectangular; twisted rope edging (probably on on top and sides only); cavetto-moulded-edged rectangle top centre, enclosing date between initials; 14 shields of Ayloffe impaling Sulyard in three rows (5-4-5).

    Notes: 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. 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. There is a large number of variants using the same shields. The bottom part of the fireback is obscured in the photograph. The initials 'CT' are likely to be those of Charles Tyler, a founder whose working life and that of his family have strong parallels with the occurrence of these firebacks.

    Inscription: C.1.6.0.3.T

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

    Manufactured: in 1603 possibly at Bedgebury Furnace, Goudhurst in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Rolvenden, Kent, England.

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

    Citation: Gardner, J. S., 1898, 'Iron Casting in the Weald', Archaeologia, 56, 1, pp. 133-164.

    Citation: Hodgkinson, J. S., 2018, 'A series of Kentish firebacks and the possible identification of their founder', Archaeologia Cantiana, 139, pp. 312-15.