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Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Unresolved Glass Queries => Topic started by: ian.macky on December 21, 2005, 05:32:09 PM

Title: Identify this weird glass thing? - ID = glass brick
Post by: ian.macky on December 21, 2005, 05:32:09 PM
Can anyone ID this weird thing?  It's reminiscent of Falconnier glass blocks, log cabin bottles, etc, but can't make it out:

(http://glassian.org/GMB/haus1.JPG)

(http://glassian.org/GMB/haus2.JPG)

(http://glassian.org/GMB/haus4.JPG)

It doesn't have the regular shape needed for tiling, so probably not a usable glass block.  Reject?  'elp!

--ian
Title: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: Frank on December 21, 2005, 07:59:53 PM
Hi Ian,

Seems to be sealed in the same way as the Falconnier's, perhaps it was a top piece?
Title: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: ian.macky on December 22, 2005, 02:12:45 AM
It is sealed, Falconnier-style, despite what it looks like in the first picture (where it does appears to have a hole).  Top-row is an interesting idea, but it's strange it has a flat back and a...   <time passes>...  hmm, idea: these look like they would fit together nicely, if you lined them alternating back and front, know what I mean?  It wouldn't work to have them all the same direction, not with the angled sides.  Top course for a Falconnier wall?  They are unmarked, so I assume they are not Falconnier.  A competitor?  He did patent the idea, in Germany, the U.S., etc.

--ian
Title: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: taco on March 23, 2006, 01:42:11 PM
Hi Ian,

I like the idea of back and front, but I doubt if Falconnier would have designed it like that. Why not in one piece? He did it with another design of his (see picture). But it does look very much like a brique Falconnier, I agree.

Taco


http://catalog.quittenbaum.de/daten/M/BilderJPG/24800/24858.jpg (http://catalog.quittenbaum.de/daten/M/BilderJPG/24800/24858.jpg)
Title: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: Frank on March 23, 2006, 03:42:08 PM
Taco do you know where those 18 went!
Title: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: azelismia on March 24, 2006, 07:32:58 PM
it looks like a butter or soap dish to me. butter dishes often had a little hole at the top.
Title: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: Frank on March 24, 2006, 08:30:41 PM
It's not a hole at the top, but sealed with glass as with Falconnier's.
Title: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: ian.macky on March 25, 2006, 05:58:22 PM
Welcome to the Glass Message Board, Taco-- glad you decided to join.

Quote from: "Frank"
Taco do you know where those 18 went!

Please everyone, keep an eye out for these half-bricks!

Here's the same picture from the auction, just embedded.  [Wonder what the rights status of this image are?  I'd like to use it on my forthcoming Falconnier page]:
(http://catalog.quittenbaum.de/daten/M/BilderJPG/24800/24858.jpg)

Half-bricks are much rarer than full bricks since they were only needed for the top and bottom courses.  Find me one and I will exchange it for its own weight in Larks' Tongues, Hummingbird Wings, Butterfly Sneezes, Chicken Lips, Bottled Ghosts, whatever you want!

I had an idea about the brown brick which started this thread: the shape reminds me of pre-cast concrete blocks used to make retaining walls.  They are meant to be arranged in curves, hence the angled sides.  Using a brick with a [isosceles] trapezoidal section would be better for making a curved wall than the normal brick.

Which doesn't explain the fairly unattractive brown color.  The only 'colored' one I've seen so far ('colored' defined as not clear, not aqua) has been a very nice emerald green, something which would be agreeable in a wall (all green?  just the occasional accent?).  But a bottle-brown wall, hmm.

The seller wanted a couple hundred bucks for the brown thing, which I wasn't inclined to risk, what with having recently lost > $500 on what turn out to be an irradiated insulator.  But it sure seems like a glass brick!

--ian
Title: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: taco on March 27, 2006, 08:29:52 AM
Frank,

I don't know who bought them, unfortunately.

Ian,

Your glass was on my mind the whole weekend. I had the feeling that I had seen something like it before, not made of glass but of ceramics, but with the same form. It looks like some sort of rose window when you put six of them together and reminds me of a clock in a railway station. You cannot compare it of course. I’ll send you a photo created of your brick by mail, because I cannot upload a photo on this board.

Taco
Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: ian.macky on June 05, 2007, 03:41:47 AM
Aha!  It is a Falconnier brique!  See this Swiss National Museum page (http://www.musee-suisse.ch/webcollection/de/php/detail.php?id=139476&typ=9&highlight=&20jh=&gesamt=116&pos=38&suchtyp=text)

Quote
Glasbaustein. Blassgrün eingefärbtes Pressglas. Halbe Sechseckform mit pyramidal gestufter Frontseite. Erfinder Gustave Falconnier, Nyon. Um 1895 - 1900. Masse: Höhe 13 cm, Breite 18 cm, Tiefe 8 cm. (LM-75070 und LM-75071)

Which badly translated to English reads:
Quote
Glass building block.   Light green hollow pressed-glass.  Half hexagon form with pyramidal terraced front side.  Inventor Gustave Falconnier, Nyon.  Around 1895 - 1900.  Mass:  Height 13 cm, Width 18 cm, Depth 8 cm.

This translation needs help.  Pressglas?  Obviously this is blown glass, not pressed glass.  So...?

Their image is LINK (http://www.musee-suisse.ch/webcollection/de/php/zusatzbild.php?bild=COL-6953.jpg) .

So, now we know they come in brown glass too.  I have two shades of green as well as the common light aqua, and a couple clears on the way, and there's also the emerald green.

Most of them are coming out of Germany now.

--ian
Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: taco on June 05, 2007, 07:37:03 AM
Ian,

Brilliant discovery! Your German is quit good and the translation is almost perfect. The correct translation is:
Glass building block. Pale green coloured pressed-glass. Half hexagon form with pyramidal terraced front side. Inventor Gustave Falconnier, Nyon.  Around 1895 - 1900. Size: Height 13 cm, Width 18 cm, Depth 8 cm.
The reason why they call it pressed glass is because it is blown into a mould (cast iron or maybe stone). In other words: it is pressed in a mould by blowing. So in a way you are both right I guess, but the real meaning of ‘Pressglas’ is of course that this glass is really pressed into a mould without blowing.

Taco
Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: Frank on June 05, 2007, 10:53:36 AM
Ian since I digitised a 1925 German trade directory for the Glass-Study.com it is easy to pick out all of the Glasbaustein makers

Glashütten Glassworks
Advert: Joseph Inwald A. G. Bohemia (Czechoslovakia)
1. Actien-Gesellchaft der Gerresheimer Glashüttenwerke vorm. Ferd. Heye, Düsseldorf
6. Aktien-Gesellschaft für Glasindustrie vorm. Friedr. Siemens, Dresden
7. Aktiengesellschaft Glashüttenwerke Adlerhütten, Penzig bei Görlitz (
10. Allgemeine Glasindustrie-Akt. -Ges., Berlin
331. von Streit, Glaswerke, G. m. b. H., Gebrüder,  Berlin

Glasraffinerien Glass finishers (Some of which indicate they do manufacture, 1634 seems? to be a lampworker)
447. Allgem. Stern-Prismen-Gesellschaft, Berlin
654. Deutsche Luxfer-Prismen-G. m. b. H., Berlin-Weißensee.
860. Vaupel, W., Sohn, Düsseldorf
1443. Meyer & Hellenthal, Köln a. Rh.
1634. Geutebrück, Franz, Manebach L Th.
1780. Baldauf, Konrad, Nürnberg
Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: ian.macky on June 05, 2007, 10:25:24 PM
Hullo Frank, long time no yak.

Thanks for the Glasbaustein info.

The Falconnier timeline is still indistinct; the last certain date I have so far is 1919 for construction of the School for Navigation in Rotterdam (thanks Taco).  1925 would not be too much of a stretch, they certainly might have still been produced then.  Someone on your list may be the culprit.

While the rise of electric lighting likely contributed to the fall of these briques (and daylighting in general), the 1920s were a transition period.  One "History of Glass Blocks" states "It was not until the 1930’s that the further development of machine production produced more satisfactory types which were easier to work."  My own patent research agrees with the mid-1930s as being the start of the "modern" period, whose block form is still in use today (typically two square halves, fused together).

The glass float fellow whose parade I rained on (by pointing out his rare and expensive fishing floats were actually building blocks) no longer answers my email.  He's terminally miffed, I suppose.

Cheers!

--ian

PS It's still a strange color to choose for a decorative brique.
Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: ian.macky on June 05, 2007, 10:30:59 PM
Hi Taco...

The reason why they call it pressed glass is because it is blown into a mould (cast iron or maybe stone). In other words: it is pressed in a mould by blowing. So in a way you are both right I guess, but the real meaning of ‘Pressglas’ is of course that this glass is really pressed into a mould without blowing.

Is there no German word for 'blown glass'?  There is certainly a world of difference between Blown In Mold (BIM) and pressed glass processes.  It's a large stretch to consider BIM "pressed".  Americans were the perfectors of pressed glass, but once the Germans started, wouldn't they have coined a word for it, to distinguish the new process from old?

--ian
Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: ian.macky on June 09, 2007, 03:50:00 AM
Eeek!  I was looking at the Swiss National Museum site again and found another Falconnier picture I had overlooked (http://www.musee-suisse.ch/webcollection/de/php/detail.php?id=139523&typ=9&highlight=&20jh=&gesamt=116&pos=39&suchtyp=mix)!  This one shows a dark olive green short-side brick [I think] of the watch-and-band pattern and astoundingly, a milkglass version of the square brick!!

So, two more colors now, and a mystery as to why they would be made in opaque glass.  Perhaps it is opal, not milkglass, but it doesn't appear very translucent in the photo.  This museum has some great stuff!

Known colors are now: clear, light aqua, four shades of greenbrown and milkglass.

The fellow with the emerald green hexagon and brown log cabin would not part with them for US$150 and $200 respectively, having paid yet more for them thinking they were über rare fishing floats.

 --ian
Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: Frank on June 09, 2007, 12:30:06 PM
It is clear many glassworks produced these bricks and almost certainly other types not by Falconnier, so all those shades of green, probably, mean different makers.

But what a terribly dark picture on the museum site  :( I knew there was a trend in museums to install lighting that makes it hard to see the objects - but wins curators prizes - but not the photos too please!
Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: pamela on June 09, 2007, 07:48:05 PM
unfortunately I am completely unable to contribute except the German words as far as I would translate:

mould and mouth blown - mund- und formgeblasen: example: http://www.pressglas-pavillon.de/karaffen/00086.html

press blown - pressgeblasen - with pressed air (scuba diving tanks work similarly) example: http://www.pressglas-pavillon.de/karaffen/00110.html

pressed glass - Pressglas - pressed mechanically into an iron mould: example: http://www.pressglas-pavillon.de/karaffen/02970.html


Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: ian.macky on June 09, 2007, 08:30:32 PM
El Franko...

But what a terribly dark picture on the museum site  :( I knew there was a trend in museums to install lighting that makes it hard to see the objects - but wins curators prizes - but not the photos too please!

I requested permission from the Swiss National Museum to use their picture of the light aqua log-cabin and square bricks, and they emailed me back a picture that was quite different from the one on their web site.  It's the same shot, but there's been a lot of color correction.  Am waiting to hear back from them what's going on.

Here is a composite I made:

(http://glassian.org/GMB/COL-6953.jpg)

The left side with the neutral background looks right to me; it's what appears on their site.  The one on the right is what they mailed me as the official version.

Hmmm.



Hi Pamela...

Pressed vs Press-blown?  That seems so unnecessarily confusing.  Pressed vs (just plain) blown makes so much more sense.  Are they trying to distinguish between old-time hand-blown and machine-blown?  geblasen itself means blown, so {mund|form|press}geblasen... more hmmm....  where is the "glas"?  Does mundgeblasen etc simply imply glass?

--ian
Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: pamela on June 09, 2007, 09:30:56 PM
yes, Ian, mundgeblasen simply implies glass
I've tried to explain with my examples - what else can I contribute?
Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: alexander on June 10, 2007, 11:35:58 PM
Mundgeblasen - literally means mouthblown, which in this context means mouth blown glass.

Alexander
Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: ian.macky on October 27, 2007, 03:07:15 AM
I recently bought a Falconnier catalog in German (http://glassian.org/Falconnier/Catalog/DE/page1.html), dated 1900, and put it online.  (I'm working on an English translation).  It shows these blocks, or at least the full-size one (this is a half-brick) for use in curved walls, domes, etc:

(http://glassian.org/Falconnier/Catalog/nr7.gif)

(http://glassian.org/Falconnier/Catalog/nr7_example_outside.gif)

Looks like the location of the pastille is incorporated into the design, instead of being hidden as in the other patterns, ala bull's-eye panes of crown glass.

The catalog lists four basic styles, and fancy colors "yellow", green, blue and opal (milkglass).  Green I have seen, and yellow usually means amber, presumably including this darker brown shade, and there's a milkglass one in the Swiss National museum, but blue!  Cobalt maybe, or cornflower (which is just light cobalt).  Oo la la, must find one!

 --ian
Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: Frank on October 27, 2007, 09:47:29 AM
That is brilliant Ian.
Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: Anne on October 27, 2007, 04:33:29 PM
Ian, that's a great find, and thanks for sharing it. Is the list on page 7/8 one which details where the bricks were used and which builders/architects used them? (I don't read German, sadly, but am interested to know if any of these installations survive.)
Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: taco on October 29, 2007, 10:02:50 AM
Anne,

You are right. The list on page 7 is of buildings, sorted out in categories like factories, railway stations, etc., which are ‘customers’. The list on page 8 is of architects, contractors and building firms.

Taco
Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing?
Post by: Anne on October 29, 2007, 06:00:33 PM
Taco, thanks for confirming that. So how many are still in situ, I wonder?
Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing? - ID = glass brick
Post by: Anne on May 18, 2009, 09:49:10 PM
Whilst browsing a downloaded PDF file on the history of the glass factory Vetropack Moravia Glass at Kyjov, previously known as S Reich, I spotted a photo of some of these glass bricks - the caption called them unique lock glass tiles.

I downloaded the 120let_kyjovske_sklarny.pdf from their site a while ago but the download link seems to have disappeared now, with the company histories just being a timeline. Anyhow, the brochure states that Reich made "hollow lock glass tiles that were the hit of Art Nouveau architecture, and production was also launched of glass roof and floor tiles."
Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing? - ID = glass brick
Post by: malwodyn on May 20, 2009, 02:36:10 PM
I don't know if anything has gone wrong with the links to the Swiss Museum website, but twice I've followed them and got only pictures of rather fine Bohemian vases... and once a totally blank page....

I'm not complaining - I shall go back to the site when I've got some time on my hands...
Title: Re: Identify this weird glass thing? - ID = glass brick
Post by: pamela on May 21, 2009, 07:16:03 PM
I destroyed a Falconnier CORNER of Adler Hutten
 - was only hitting it with a smooth becerit to remove the beton-cement
sorry for my poor knowledge in English - but those of you goldsmithing will know, what a becerit is?