The mode of casting these iron firebacks in sand and the employment of wooden patterns to form the mould into which the molten metal was to run is familiar to any foundry in casting iron. In regard to the early examples with the twisted cable rim, it is conjectured that pieces of twisted rope were actually laid on the wet sand to produce this pattern--that is, before the use of carved wooden patterns such as are illustrated. In regard to the bolder "cable twist" pattern, it is believed this was produced by impression of pieces of rope stiffened with glue, and twisted around iron rods. [Illustration: SUSSEX IRON FIREBACK. FIRST HALF OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Rope-like border impressed on sand mould. The field impressed with repetitions from a single _fleur-de-lys_ stamp.] [Illustration: SUSSEX IRON FIREBACK. The Royal Oak Design, commemorative of the Restoration. Late Seventeenth Century. Moulded edge and carved in one piece from a single pattern. (_In the collection of Charles Dawson, Esq., F.S.A., Lewes._)] [Illustration: SUSSEX FIREBACKS. Tudor Rose surmounted by Royal Crown. Dated 1650. Depicting Ironmaster at his Forge. (Very rusty and worn.)] [Illustration: ORIGINAL WOODEN PATTERNS. Dutch influence. Eighteenth Century. From which firebacks were made at Ashburnham, Sussex. (_By the courtesy of Charles Dawson, Esq., F.S.A., Lewes._)] The size of the wooden pattern is slightly larger than the resultant fireback, owing to the shrinkage of the metal on cooling. This diminution in design is a factor in the potter's art, when figures in some cases lose nearly a third of their original proportions when moulded in the clay prior to firing. Firebacks have attracted a considerable amount of interest. There are many collectors, and a great deal of close study has been applied to the subject. Country museums in the vicinity of the Weald of Sussex and Kent contain many notable examples, especially those of Lewes, Hastings, Brighton, Rochester, Maidstone, and Guildford. In the first mentioned there are some very rare and beautiful examples of Sussex firebacks. Especially interesting in connection with the Sussex ironworks is the illustration (p. 309) of a clock face made by a local maker, Beeching of Ashburnham, in the late seventeenth century. This brass dial of a thirty-hour clock, with single hand and alarum, is ornamented with designs showing various phases of the iron industry as carried on in Sussex. There is a cannon with diminutive figures holding the match. There are cannon-balls, and a liliputian fireback with a crown on it. Men with pickaxes, men felling trees, and others tending the furnaces, symbolise the business of a foundry. It was not until 1690 that the minute numerals were placed outside the minute divisions in clock faces, so that this face, having the minute numerals absent and the minute divisions in the inner circle, presumably belongs to the late seventeenth century.