Cable moulding, or the modern term 'rope twist', is most familiarly known in the world of architectural salvage in the ubiquitous ropetwist topped garden edging tile, where cable mould became a popular motif on domestic artefacts due to the many trophies incorporating cable or ropetwist decoration set up around Britain after Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. That and the introduction of the lawn mower which allowed Regency town villas to be set back from the street line to give room for the newfangled front lawns, with paths edged by cable mould.
 
Later John Ruskin used the popular sentiment for cable mould by extolling its virtues in The Two Paths:

… you may walk down to your rough river-shore, or into the thickest markets of your thoroughfares; and there is not a piece of torn cable that will not twine into a perfect moulding …

well yes, especially in early romanesque and gothic architecture.
 
A forthcoming Bonhams sale has a cable moulded domestic item with a difference, celebrating an Elizabethan naval victory, the defeat of the Spanish fleet by Raleigh in 1588, in the form of a cast iron fireback with a pair of coiled ropes attached to cross anchors, four fleur de lys above and four roses below, with a cartouche above bearing the date 1588 and IFC. Originally the rope would have simply been impressed into the mould, along with the other features, to create the finished article. This model was reproduced by various foundries including Kingsworthy in the 1970s, and a similar copy can be had at Cox's Yard on special offer for £125 today.
 
The Oak Interior antiques sale in Oxford includes 147 lots, one being the Armada fireback, from the collection of John Caspall, author of Fire and Light in the Home Pre 1820, a definitive work on making fire and early lighting, which, apart from the fireback, is what the lots consist of, running the gamut of medieval rushlight to 1900 horn-glazed lantern, together with some interesting kitchenalia, such as a sycamore Sussex spice tower, all looking to be in museum condition, and no doubt some are featured in Caspall's book.
 
Bonhams: the Oak Interior including The Caspall Collection 1 Oct 2014, Oxford