Firebacks

Manufactured in 1606

  1. 583

    petworth_062.jpg
    684 x 783 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arch-shaped, with rounded-arched extension at top; cavetto moulded edge all round; five vertical planklines; arms of the Francis (or Franceis) family of Derbyshire: Argent a Chevron gules between three Eagles displayed of the same; Crest: an eagle displayed on a crowned knight’s helm; initials in bottom corners; date below shield.

    Notes: Probably the arms of Sir Edward Francis, who was Seneschal of the Petworth House estate and took overall charge in 1606 when the 9th Earl of Northumberland was committed to the Tower of London for his alledged involvement in the Gunpowder Plot.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: E 1606 F

    Arms: Sir Edward Francis

    Manufactured: in 1606 probably at Frith Furnace, Northchapel in the Weald area of England.

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

    Museum number: NT/PET/M/41.1 (part of the National Trust museum group)

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

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

  2. 1315

    tenterden,_watermill_house.jpg
    870 x 575 mm

    Description: Canted rectangular shape; twisted rope edging (top and sides); top centre, rectangular panel with cavetto-moulded edging enclosing date between initials CT; below, 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 Bretons, Hornchurch, Essex, Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench, married (c1560) Jane, dau. of Sir Eustace Sulyard, of Runwell, Essex. 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. The reversal of the second 6 in the date is, so far, unique in this series.

    Inscription: C 1606 T [the second 6 reversed]

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

    Manufactured: in 1606 possibly at Bedgebury Furnace, Goudhurst in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Tenterden, 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: Hodgkinson, J. S., 2018, 'A series of Kentish firebacks and the possible identification of their founder', Archaeologia Cantiana, 139, pp. 312-15.