Topic: Identify this weird glass thing? - ID = glass brick

[taco]

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

[Frank]

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

[ian.macky]

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.

[ian.macky]

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

[ian.macky]

Eeek!  I was looking at the Swiss National Museum site again and found another Falconnier picture I had overlooked!  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 green,  brown 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

[Frank]

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!

[pamela]

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

[ian.macky]

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:

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

[pamela]

yes, Ian, mundgeblasen simply implies glass
I've tried to explain with my examples - what else can I contribute?

[alexander]

Mundgeblasen - literally means mouthblown, which in this context means mouth blown glass.

Alexander