Firebacks

Description: Cavetto-canted rectangular shape; astragal edging (top and sides); letters in triad between separated date.

Notes: The modest size of this fireback reflects the decreasing size of fireplaces in the 18th century.

Inscription: 17 TRS [triad] 31

Description: Arched rectangular central panel with fillet edging; central seated female with an infant in her arms, a swan at her feet and a standing child on each side, the one to her left facing the front and holding aloft a flaming heart, its foot on a ball; the child to her right facing the woman, holding aloft a branch in its left hand, all on a ground with an overhanging tree to the right; arched rectangular border with fillet edging with descending festoons of acanthus flowers on each side, the date and initials at the bottom and, at the top on each side, a pair of acanthus flowers descending from a heart-shaped terminal of a strapwork frame; above, mirrored swirls of foliage.

Notes: The central pictorial scene is a crude pastiche of a panel portraying an allegory of Charity frequently used on firebacks produced in the Siegerland of north-west Germany for the Dutch market in the second half of the seventeenth century. The swirled foliage on the top is typical of English 'Dutch' style firebacks of the early-eighteenth century and the numerals are also more typically English in style.

Inscription: 17 . IAK[?] 31