the railed basket flanked by hobs with egg and dart mouldings, the facade with vertical bands of relief-cast foliate ornament and centred by a floral basket and anthemia motifs, bearing the stamp "CARRON",

Carron Co. was founded in 1759 near Falkirk in Scotland. Like Coalbrookdale in Shropshire they became an enormous operation. When Thomas Pennant visited the works in 1769 he described them as “the greatest of the kind in Europe….Above 1200 men are employed. Cannon and all kinds of casting produced”.

Carron were primarily interested in the mass production of their most commercial lines and had agents in London spotting the latest fashions and sending plaster casts to Falkirk for reproduction. LASSCO has bought and sold many Georgian fire grates stamped “Carron” or “Ca.Co” over the years. The Adam brothers were employed by the foundry to supply designs. (See: Temple Newsam Country House studies No. 2, “The Fashionable Fireplace” pub. Leeds City Art Galleries, 1985 for a good summary of The Carron Foundry).