Topic: 1866 whatzit-- Paperweight? magnifier? ID = Cover for medallion paperweight

[ian.macky]

Bernard, got your re-sends, thanks much, they're on my local hard drive now, which is relatively safe.  Until I post to my site and the Internet Archiver picks them up, they're not really safe.  Has everyone checked out the Wayback Machine?

Dictionary of Ornithology... well, falcon, falconnier, I hadn't thought it might be a real word instead of a proper name.  Perhaps it's a family name based on an old trade, Baker, Smith, Fisher, etc?  The glass thing's not related to falconry however-- it's architecural.  Nice add'l information, tho.


In case anyone hasn't gotten it yet, the Falconnier thing is an early hollow glass building block:

http://peninsulators.org/GMB/falconnier.gif

This page is from Glass in Architecture and Decoration (Raymond McGrath, A. C. Frost and H. E. Beckett), an unbelievably good reference book.  On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it about a 23.  If you don't have one, recommend BookFinder.com for a meta-book-finder, it seems to be the most complete.

I need one of those diamond-pattern Falconnier blocks, but as I've said, they're rare.  So far I've seen zero on eBay, and was lucky my site references them (in the patent index), as someone with a single block for sale found me and came calling.

--ian

[Frank]

Another odd bit of glass, bird bath.

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=7479&item=6522021401

[Anne]

Frank, would that be used inside a birdcage rather than outside do you think?

[ian.macky]

Frank, if you think that's odd, check this out:

GLASS WINDOW SASH PULLEYS/GUIDES 1863

--ian

[Frank]

Yup, that is very different but a good material for the job.

The birdbath would hang over the open door outside the cage - I would have thought that they must have been made quite a lot in pre-plastic days.

It is certainly interesting to step away from the ordinary uses of glass.

[ian.macky]

Now for some glass content: here's another nice piece of glass I won: HUGE NEW ENGLAND SANDWICH GLASS ARCHITECTURAL TILE 1850.  It appears to me to be a skylight tile, based on similarities to my Luxfer skylight tile (of known provenance).  I think it's not strong enough for pavement use.  Nice piece of glass, very thick and heavy.  More glass is better, neh?

  --ian

[Frank]

Seems to have been a popular tile, did they produce many designs? So now we have glass walls, doors, windows, ceilings, floors, pet housing and infrastructure components. To which could be added electric heater, lighting, staircases and of course kitchen and tableware.

The possibility of a totally glass house would seem to be realistic today. There are also some new conductive glasses that can replace much of the electrical components. We just lack a soft safe flexible glass for furnishings, what a pity the fabled Roman flexible glass has been lost.

[Anne]

Ian - This is a very nice glass "tile". I love to see glass used architecturally - especially buildings with glass skylights / domes / roofs where there are glass panels to let in the light. Shame to many of them are left to go green and gungy - when new and/or clean they look wonderful. Glass bricks have been used in one of the new car park entrances also near me - so much nicer than a blank concrete wall! Shame there isn't more glass used imaginatively - rather than just huge sheets of plain glass in concrete boxes.

Your glass window sash cord pieces were very interesting - I've never seen any like those before.

[roget123]

Greetings to all,

The inscription is unusual for in many countries of the World patents are described by a number, not a date.  This concept is used in most countries that formed part of the old British Empire; as shown on that intriguing object "Mr Lillicrap's Hone" which has several Patent numbers on it (no years).
In the UK patents are numbered consequentially from "1" on the first day of each year, there to identify a patent taken out in the UK you need to know the year and number.
Although just to prove that when ever anyone descibes how a sytem should be worked, an example such as Lillicrap's Hone comes along that shows how the rules were ignored.
So maybe an US patent is correct - I don't know what form they take.

Design Registrations on the other hand are numbered from the start of the series and thus a number is sufficient to identify them. This is of course after the 'diamond' registration series ended in 1884.

About the object, it reminds me of a bulkhead light diffuser as used in ships etc to bring light (normally sunlight) to the interior of a hold or similar space. The modern version are those light tubes that smart designers are using for buildings.  However as this item as a depression then maybe it was used with an artificial light source.
Hope this text is illuminative and not diffusing the matter further.

Geoff

[Frank]

Lillicrap's Hone

Another interesting use of glass...
http://user.tninet.se/~uqv930t/vassare/stropp6.htm#Lillicraps%20hone