Firebacks

Manufactured in 1641

  1. 45

    cuckfield,_fowlers.jpg
    870 x 555 mm

    Description: Rectangular; ovolo-moulded, gadrooned edging (top and sides); a vertical spindle or chair leg surmounted by a fleur-de-lys arranged three times; the date split by the middle fleur-de-lys.

    Notes: The fleur-de-lys is separately stamped from the spindle, and the same spindle is seen on another fireback of the same date.

    Inscription: 1641

    Manufactured: in 1641 possibly at Cuckfield Furnace in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Cuckfield, West Sussex, England.

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

  2. 1014

    jean_bouchu 1641 780x800.jpg
    780 x 800 mm

    Description: Rectangular with moulded edging; shield, forward-facing helm, lion's head crest, mantling, lion supporters, and collar of the Order of St Michael

    Notes: The arms are probably those of Jean Bouchu (1597-1653), French parliamentarian: azure, a chevron between, in chief, two crescents and, in base, a lion rampant sinister or.

    Inscription: 1641

    Arms: Bouchu

    Manufactured: in 1641 in France.

    Current location: Claude Augustin Antique Materials, 104 Route Nationale 6, 69380 Les Chères, Rhone, France.

  3. 356

    knowle,_baddesley clinton 01.jpg
    1005 x 758 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Canted rectangle; twisted rope edging (top and sides); bearded face stamp repeated in top corners and below inscription; date along top edge; initials split by date and slightly below.

    Notes: The distinctive style of the ‘4’ in the date and the bearded mask stamp have also been noted on a fireback at Callow Farm, Dymock, Gloucestershire, associated with the operator of the Newent furnace.

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: E 1641 M

    Manufactured: in 1641 probably at Elmbridge Furnace, Newent in the Forest of Dean area of England.

    Current location: Baddesley Clinton Hall, Knowle, Warwickshire, England.

    Museum number: 342876 (part of the National Trust museum group)

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

  4. 445

    lewes,_sussex arch soc 085.jpg
    764 x 600 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Arched rectangular shape; cavetto moulded edging; garter enclosing Stuart royal arms, with supporters, crown and motto; date split either side of garter buckle.

    Notes: The style of the numerals is very similar to those on a plate bearing a lion, dated 1656, and is likely to be the work of the same pattern-maker; a variant (no. 253) has a substituted date of 1664.

    Inscription: C R / 16 41

    Arms: English Stuart royal

    Manufactured: in 1641 in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: Anne of Cleves House, Southover High Street, Lewes, East Sussex, England.

    (part of the Sussex Archaeological Society museum group)

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

  5. 901

    unknown_42 laughing lion 787x700mm.jpg
    787 x 700 mm
    Image subject to copyright

    Description: Quasi-Arched rectangular shape with cyma reversa shoulders; ovolo edging; stylised lion passant guardant; crowned rose with leaf and stem on left, crowned fleur de lys on right, thistle with leaves above centre; three right-facing scrolls at base; down-facing scroll, with staple, on right side; date split between bottom corners; initials below date, bottom right.

    Notes: Blatantly Royalist in its symbolism, a variant (no. 763) is dated (perhaps less convincingly) 1649. Numeral style, initials, leaf depiction and the stapled scroll are typical features of firebacks made from patterns by the same maker. A later version of the same subject, but with a different shaped plate and without the fleur-de-lys, is also known (see 'Royalist series'). M. A. Lower writes of this design of fireback being cast at Waldron Furnace in Sussex (Lower, 1849, p.219).

    Copies of this fireback are known.

    Inscription: 16 41 / IM

    Manufactured: in 1641 possibly at Brede Furnace in the Weald area of England.

    Current location: in private hands, Wandsworth, London, England.

    Citation: Hodgkinson, J. S., 2014, 'A Seventeenth-Century Sussex Woodcarver: The Evidence of Cast Ironwork', Regional Furniture, 28, pp. 39-48.

    Citation: Lower, M. A., 1849, 'Iron Works of the County of Sussex', Sussex Archaeological Collections, 2, pp. 169-220 (esp. pp. 188-9).