Author Topic: Identify this weird glass thing? - ID = glass brick (Read 17500 times)

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:

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

--ian

Frank · « **Reply #1 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?

ian.macky · « **Reply #2 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

taco · « **Reply #3 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

Frank · « **Reply #4 on:** March 23, 2006, 03:42:08 PM »

Taco do you know where those 18 went!

azelismia · « **Reply #5 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.

Frank · « **Reply #6 on:** March 24, 2006, 08:30:41 PM »

It's not a hole at the top, but sealed with glass as with Falconnier's.

ian.macky · « **Reply #7 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]:

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

taco · « **Reply #8 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

ian.macky · « **Reply #9 on:** June 05, 2007, 03:41:47 AM »

Aha! It is a Falconnier brique! See this Swiss National Museum page

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 .

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