Firebacks were made of iron for fireplaces, sometimes cast with the coat-of-arms of the owner or the date of construction. In Pennsylvania were famous iron workers, and there is a collection of iron firebacks in the museum at Memorial Hall, Philadelphia. At Mount Vernon is a fireback with the Fairfax coat-of-arms which Washington took from Belvoir, the estate of Lord Fairfax, adjoining Mount Vernon.
Illustration [317] shows a chimney piece in the west parlor at Mount Vernon. Washington’s coat-of-arms is carved at the top, and his crest and initials are cast in the fireback. In the panel over the mantel is a painting which was sent to Lawrence Washington in 1743, by Admiral Vernon, in acknowledgment of the courtesy shown by Lawrence Washington to his old commander, in naming the estate Mount Vernon. The painting represents Admiral Vernon’s fleet at Cartagena.
About 1750 the hob-grate was invented. Illustration [318] shows a mantel and fireplace with a hob-grate in the house of Charles R. Waters, Esq., of Salem. The fireplace was filled in with brick or stone at each side, and the grate set between.
Illus. 317.—Mantel at Mount Vernon, 1760-1770.
The bars, of course, are of iron for holding coal, and the sides of the grate are of brass. These were at first called “cat-stones” to distinguish them from “fire-dogs,” but later they were named “hob-grates.”
Illus. 318.—Mantel with Hob-grate, 1776.