the facade cast with diapered cross-hatchings in relief, interspersed with various polyform "mon", each incorporating geometric flowerheads, the reeded border framing the rectangular aperture above the reeded rails and flanked with a pair of tiled reflector plates (no firebrick salvaged as is usual with Jeckyll stoves),

This “Parson’s Grate” is one of the well-known designs from the extraordinary output of the great Victorian designer and architect Thomas Jeckyll.

LASSCO has enjoyed the buying and selling of numerous designs of these revolutionary stoves over the years. In their day – from the 1870’s they were very popular. They represented an innovative way of burning coal (as proposed in a long correspondence in The Times by a writer with the nom de plume “A Country Parson”), they were decorated with the beautiful relief-work inspired by Japanese blue and white porcelain. The “Mon” in this example include one of a peacock butterfly – a nod to Jeckyll’s friend (and tormentor) James Whistler who signed with a butterfly and often incorporated butterflies in his portrait paintings.

Jeckyll, an established architect in East Anglia, formed a long relationship with a Norwich Foundry “Barnard, Bishop and Barnards” whose outlets in Norwich and Queen Victoria Street in London distributed these fashionable designs widely. The association between designer and foundry continued with the great world fairs of the 1860’s and 70’s – particularly London with his “Norwich Gates” in 1862 and later in Philadelphia and Paris where Barnards wowed the buying public with a two-storey 40ton cast iron Japanese-style pavilion – built to Jeckyll’s designs.

The “slow combustion stoves” and their accessories were the great commercial success.

We are completely foxed by the tiles on this example. Everything about them is right except that the design appears to be mid-20th Century, “Festival of Britain” rather than 1870’s – research continues.