Ref.10330
"The Crimean Battle", antique cast iron fireback

Small fireback made out of cast iron in the 20th century. It represents a wounded soldier during an episode of the Crimean War, a conflict between the Russian Empire and a coalition of the Ottoman Empire, the Empire of Napoleon III, the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Sardinia, 1854-1856. It is triggered by the fear of the declining Ottoman Empire fall to Russian expansionism.

Ref.10961
Antique fireback with jansenist decoration, 18th century

This antique fireback was made in the 18th century. At its center is represented the Jansenist badge with the three Theological Virtues. Faith is thus depicted as a blindfolded woman while Hope is represented by an anchor and Charity by a flaming heart. This medallion is surrounded by a Latin inscription "Ardet Amans Spe Nixa Fides" which means "Faith, relied on Hope, burning with the fire of Charity." This sentence appeared in the frontispiece of all Jansenists books. At the top, wa can see the Hebrew tetragrammaton. From either side of the medallion are the Cardinal Virtues : Fortitude, Justice, Temperance and Prudence. Jansenism is a movement first religious, then political and philosophical that develops in the 17th and 18th century in France and is based exclusively on the doctrine of St. Augustine. This doctrine develops mainly against the evolution of the Catholic Church and royal absolutism. This theological doctrine takes its name from Cornelius Jansen, Bishop of Ypres, who writes the founding text. An other fireback with the same model is known in the Abbaye of Orval, south of Belgium.