Another Three Bricks

Two of these bricks were amongst the 5 tip truck loads that we got years ago and one is a more recent acquisition, although not absolutely sure where from.


The first brick, the recent acquisition, has an impressed frog of a small hand with a heart in the middle (not really very clear in the photo).  It has been suggested to me that this brick may have come from the old Whiskey Au Go Go Nightclub that was burnt down in 1973 in Fortitude Valley.  I expect that this brick  would date from the late 1800s

Heart in Hand Mark

Detail of Heart in Hand Mark

The next brick is one of my favourites.  It has a raised knot or what I call a pretzel mark in its frog.  I have seen a few of these bricks around but don't have any idea as to their origins or age.  I would love to hear from anyone who could give me some information about it.  This brick came out of our original piles of bricks bought for paving.

Knot or Pretzel Mark

The third brick has quite a lot of wording pressed into its frog.  It says THE VIRGINIA BRICK & TILE Co, BRISBANE WORKS,  NORTH COAST LINE (at least I think the last word is LINE).  It's appropriate that I have a few bricks in my collection from Virginia as they all came from the demolished Virginia Pipe Works.

The Virginia Brick & Tile Co Mark

Detail of The Virginia Brick & Tile Co Mark

The only reference to The Virginia Brick & Tile Co that I could find was in an article about the early history of Virginia State School on a Northgate Ward Community News website.  It tells about the struggles involved in establishing the first school at Virginia and how they went about clearing the grounds of all the trees.  The following is an interesting extract from the Northgate Ward Community News website that mentions The Virginia Brick & Tile Co:-

"Major William Clatworthy, manager of the Virginia Brick and Tile Company blew out the remaining stumps of the trees that had been cleared. He would plant the detonators with his teeth and those who watched him expected to see his head blown off. Fortunately, that event never occurred."

The School was eventually completed in 1920.

It would be good to know when this company began and ended.  Maybe it was taken over by another brickworks or maybe it just changed its production from bricks to pipes only.

Two More Bricks

Here are two more bricks from my collection.  I bought these almost 30 years ago from a bottle show at The Brisbane Table Tennis Association Hall, Windsor.  Little did I realise at the time that this show was hosted by the Queensland Historical Bottle Club (now known as the Queensland Historical Bottle & Collectables Club) and that almost 30 years later I would be a member of this club.  The Aladdins Antique and Collectables Fairs are now held here 4 times a year.

The first brick is a British brick impressed with "HICKMAN & Co  STOURBRIDGE".  I was told when I bought it that this brick most likely came to Australia as ballast in a 19th century sailing ship.  They would often use bricks as ballast on the way out to Australia and use timber (sometimes cedar) as ballast for the return journey.  The ballast would then be sold at the ship's  destination before the loading of new ballast and cargo.  Are there any buildings in Australia built entirely or partly of British bricks?  Not sure, but it all makes an interesting story.  (I know that Hinkler's home in Bundaberg is built out of British bricks but it was brought out brick by brick and reassembled here in 1983, not sent as ballast in a sailing ship.)

I did find an early reference to this brick on the Papers Past website.  This site has more than two million digitised pages from early N. Z. newspapers from 1839 to 1945.  Just type 'Hickman and Co. Stourbridge' into the search.  The first entry, dating from 1871, is interesting as it talks of a Hickman and Co brick being used in a test comparison with other fire bricks.  It performed really well in the test.  Most references to this brick indicate that they are firebricks so maybe this one came from a kiln or fireplace.

The second brick was bought at the same time.  Don't know much about this brick and not even sure if it is an M or a W impressed into it.  Looks a bit like a snake to me.  There is an example of this brick in Roycroft's Australian Bottle Price Guide Number Four.  It is displayed in the M position in this publication.  The double heart brick in the previous post is also pictured here.  Unfortunately, no detailed information is given of either.

As said before, any information that you can give about any of these bricks would be most appreciated.