Builder is all about Construction, Architecture, Repair, Design! Construction from A to Z! From idea to object! Brick history and brick collection

Brick hallmarks are a separate type of historical information; they have preserved the names of the owners of enterprises, representatives of the industrial elite of the country. Many stamps indicate the location of enterprises.
Many branded bricks are perceived as a model of the technical aesthetics of those years.
By now, the collection of branded bricks has become quite common. This type of collecting even got its own name - bricophilia., from the English brick - brick. The title is not very good. In this case, not just samples of brick production are of interest, but letter or other marks imprinted on them, with which brick manufacturers marked their products.
In Russia, brands on bricks appeared by the middle of the 17th century. It was a relief image of the state eagle in a quadrangular frame.

Stylized images of animals (animal motifs) were used for brick marks until the 1690s.
Subsequently, bricks began to be marked with the letters of the Russian alphabet, using only one letter at first, for example, in the brickwork of Moscow, as early as the 1680s, there were hallmarks measuring 3 x 3 cm, representing the letter D. At the beginning of the next century, marks with the letters П and Н appeared.
It is believed that single-letter hallmarks existed until the 1730s. They were square in shape. But this conclusion was made on the basis of a study of the brickwork of Moscow. In St. Petersburg, the branding of bricks with a single letter denoting the name of the owner of the brick factory lasted much longer. For example, the brand with the letter C is associated with the bricks of the factory founded by Fyodor Nikiforovich Slepushkin (1763 - 1848), better known as a self-taught poet. At the same time, the stamp on his products has not a square, but an elongated shape.
With the development of the brick business, single-letter hallmarks were unable to provide brick manufacturers with the only letter belonging to them. Since the end of the 18th century, the number of letters in the stamps has increased, denoting the name, patronymic and surname of the owner. Sometimes the surname is given in full. Often, instead of initials, the brand consists of the name of the plant, for example: Moika, Izhora, Neva, or Elizavetino, Kolpino, or the abbreviation of the manufacturing company, for example, T.O.S.M. -. Association for the processing of building materials.
Animalistic images - double-headed eagles, are found on the products of the imperial brick factories - from the time of Nicholas I in a rectangular frame, Alexander I - in a circle, Alexander III - in an oval outline.

From other images, an imprint of a horseshoe on the products of the Podkova plant by E.P. Spechinsky and her heirs, or a symbolic image of a star, between the initials of the owner - the Zvezda plant, F.A. Polyakova-Koftunov, are known.
The following stamp frames are known: square, rectangular, rectangular with semicircular or, more rarely, rectangular arches. The hallmark composition often included the numbers of batches (firing) of the manufactured items. They were placed either in the main field of the brand, or in the plane of the temples. There are stamps with pointed ends, diagonal placement on the face of the brick. Known bricks with stamps on the end (butt), or spoon faces ..
Branding of bricks has developed into a special kind of applied art. Bricks gained particular attraction from the 40s of the 19th century during the transition to their machine production. Prior to this, in manual production, due to the clay remaining in the molds from previous driving, the bricks were produced with deformed edges, streamlined corners, crumpled edges. Mechanical clay mixers made it possible to achieve greater uniformity of the clay mass, which was used to fill wooden molds. At the bottom of each mold was placed a plate-stamp with the stamp of the owner of the plant. In the 18th century, branding of bricks was one of the requirements of the Architectural Expedition, a special supervisory body, in order to know which industrialists produced quality products and who could be fined for bricks of inadequate quality.
Brick sizes were also regulated. Under Peter I, the bricks had to be 11 inches long, 5.5 inches wide, and 3 inches thick, i.e., they should have dimensions of 28 x 14 x 7 cm. In 1833, the government determined the length of a brick 6, width 3, 5 inches, i.e. 26.5 x 13.3 x 6.7 cm.
Hallmarks can serve as an auxiliary sign to clarify the time of construction of structures, repair and restoration work carried out here, rebuilding and extensions. The hallmarks on the butt and spoon faces were used as decorative elements in the laying of walls or vaults. Poke marks had a convex relief, and spoon marks had a concave relief. They had to be clearly perceived not only at close range, but also at a distance, from different angles of view, primarily due to light and shadow effects.

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, these stamps lost all their artistry, they are perceived as barely noticeable graffiti. Similar stamps are present on some buildings in the city of Luga. Tychkovy stamps with the inscription SPB A O va (St. Petersburg Joint Stock Company) are visible in the masonry of the front facade of the house at ul. Tosi Petrova, 16 Spoon stamps with capital letters AR are on the facades of the building of the Luga Military Commissariat (pr. Uritskogo, 59/15). On some faces the letters are placed across, on others obliquely, on the third along the planes of the faces. One side is completely dotted with the contours of these letters with their layering on top of each other. Completely inexplicable case!

Bricks with a stamp on a wide surface, the so-called. bed, or cheek, relatively late, somewhere from the end of the 19th century. began to be used as a facing material in interior design. But for general construction purposes, they have found a long-standing and most common application. Moreover, masons laid bricks on the mortar with marks down, which increased the strength of the masonry. During the demolition or reconstruction of historical buildings, they were massively taken out as construction waste to landfills, at best they were selected for a wide variety of secondary uses. They also form the basis of, one might say, all bricophilic collections.

IN THE BRICK CHRONICLE OF PETERSBURG. "PiV"

I continue to dig on the net for information and stories about bricks lying literally under the feet of Petersburgers.
By the way, three years ago I already talked about a brick with the "PiV" stamp.
Let me remind you what the conversation was about.

STORY THREE. "PiV"
Taking a walk with my daughter towards the Gulf of Finland, we found a fragment of the wall of a dismantled building with clear marks on the brick surface in the form of the letters "PiV" and above "III".

Puzzled by the question of which of the manufacturers or customers owns the stigma, I got into the global network.
Here's what I found:

The hallmarks "PiV" are distinguished by Roman "I, II, III" depending on the serial number of the plant and variations of dots after the letters.
The owners of the plant are Mikhail Andreevich Petrov and Leopold Adolfovich Vitovsky.
The plant that produced bricks with the stamp "PiV" belonged to Mikhail Andreevich Petrov and Leopold Adolfovich Vitovsky. M.A. Petrov’s plant on the Malaya Izhorka River near Kormchino has been known since 1864. (I used the brand "MP"), and the factories of L.A. Vitovsky (only 3 pieces), purchased from various owners (see the brand "LAV"), judging by the descriptions, were located there. Thus, it is possible that somewhere in the 1880s, a co-owner (L.A. Vitovsky) appeared at the factory of Mr. Petrov, and a new mark "PiV" (with and without dots) began to be used on bricks in various frames and with numbers of various alphabets (Roman I-III indicated the numbers of factories). After the nationalization of the factories of Mr. Vitovsky in 1920. on their basis, the Krasny Kirpichnik plant appeared, which worked until 1941.

This piece was branded with this: Dimensions (15.5 cm by 7.5 cm) material - brass.

The brick factory itself was not so close to St. Petersburg.
Location: Russia, Leningrad region.
Latitude: 59°46"26.37"N
Longitude: 30°36"54.83"E
During the Second World War, the plant was located a few kilometers from the front line.
After the war, little remained of the village - just like from other suburbs of Kolpino. As a result of the reconstruction, good brick houses of the Stalinist type were built on the picturesque river bank. There were two streets in the village (one was Prirechnaya, the name of the second was not established), a bathhouse, a couple of shops, a small post office and two booths with pay phones.
In 1964, by decision of the executive committee of the Lensoviet, Krasny Kirpichnik was proposed not to be singled out into a separate settlement, but to be considered from now on merged with the village. Pontoon located on the other side of the river. But due to its isolated position, until the end of its days, the village remained in the minds of local residents as a separate settlement.
At the end of the 1980s, the Red Brickworks plant became a joint Russian-German venture, Pobeda-Knauf. For unknown reasons, the village was resettled in 1987.

After the blockade was broken, the plant began to work in full, releasing bricks to restore the destroyed buildings of Leningrad, including the village of Ponton. The labor force at this plant was made up of captured Germans. The plant existed somewhere until the mid-70s.
After almost three years, I again returned to the very place where I saw this fragment of a brick wall and which I had completely forgotten about, but found again, like a post on my blog about them))
Do not forget to leave your comments below, which I am always happy and will definitely answer each.

Previous posts about bricks
"Ya.Petrov 66" -

Kuritsyn E.M.

The beginning of a personal collection of bricks, which consists of more than 600 units, was, on the one hand, accidental, and on the other hand, natural, since I come from a family of hereditary builders and architects and have been interested in construction and building materials since childhood. The first brick that marked the beginning of the collection, Danish in origin, was found in masonry during excavations of an old Finnish foundation at a summer cottage near the town of Priozersk, Leningrad Region. The unusual stamp on the brick aroused interest and served as an incentive to search for information about it. Gradually, on the streets of St. Petersburg, old bricks with stamps began to come across, which I took with me. This passion eventually grew into a conscious search and collection of other exhibits.

Brick is the most common building material today. Its versatility and practicality are appreciated all over the world. His invention is no less important to us than the invention of the wheel, and history goes back into the depths of time. Of course, brick is one of the very first building materials. The word "brick" itself is of Persian origin, and it got into the Russian language through the Turkic languages. Its history goes back several millennia, but no one can say for sure who and when the first copy was made. The oldest objects made of baked clay were found at the site of the Old Stone Age (Paleolithic) in Slovakia, their age is 25 thousand years. The first mention of brick as a building material dates back to the 5th-4th millennium BC. in the architecture of the pre-dynastic period (Ancient Egypt). During excavations in Dzhemdet-Nasr, traces of a building of the end of the 4th - beginning of the 3rd millennium BC were found. e. from thin flat bricks (the so-called "rimhens").

At the beginning of the III millennium BC. hand-made one-sided convex bricks were replaced by bricks made in wooden forms, initially oblong (20 x 30 x 10 cm - Old Babylonian brick).

It is known that the first people who built houses from unbaked bricks were the Sumerians (3000 BC). A clear example of this is the wall of the Sumerian city of Ur, whose thickness reached 27 meters. Brick played a particularly important role in the architecture of Ancient Rome, where complex structures, including arches, vaults, etc., were laid out of brick (45 × 30 × 10 cm).

In pre-Mongol Rus' (mainly "wooden") brickwork was similar to Roman, insofar as "brick architecture" came to Rus' from Byzantium, which is the successor to Rome.

A striking example of the use of brick construction in the Russian state during the time of Ivan III was the construction of walls and temples of the Moscow Kremlin, which was in charge, including Italian masters. In 1485-1495, Russian and Italian craftsmen erected new walls and towers of the Kremlin from red brick. Brick walls were placed along the line of old white stone bricks, with a slight retreat to the outside.

Brick began to be made in a different form than before, and of greater strength. For this purpose, a new brick factory was built in Kalitniki, near the Peasant Outpost. Day and night, master bricklayers baked strong burnt bricks for the new Kremlin walls, towers, and cathedrals. A lot of bricks were needed. 600 pieces went to one wall prong (merlon), and there are more than a thousand such prongs. Moreover, 20 towers, and the walls themselves stretched for two and a quarter kilometers.

Smaller bricks were used for cathedrals, and towers and walls were made of half a pood brick, which was called “two-handed” (30x14x17 cm or 31x15x9 cm) weighing up to 8 kg each.

For the first time, mechanization of construction work was applied: brick and stone were lifted up not by hand, but with the help of a special machine, which Russian carpenters called veksha (squirrel). The front walls were laid out of brick, which were filled with white stone. The highest walls were erected along the Red Square, where there was no natural water barrier. The Moscow Kremlin, built according to the last word of fortification, was, first of all, a fortress that protected all the inhabitants of the city.

And since the highest secular and spiritual power, the most revered churches, monasteries and all-Russian Christian shrines were concentrated there, the Kremlin began to be perceived as a place of “special state holiness” for all of Russia.

The Uphill consulting group recently completed an assessment of the Moscow Kremlin. As of November 2012, the value of the Kremlin as a piece of real estate (taking into account social and cultural value) was 1.5 trillion Russian rubles (50 billion US dollars).

The production of bricks on the territory of St. Petersburg began in 1703 through the efforts of Peter I. However, there is another version of this. According to which, the Swedes, long before the Russians, chose the swampy banks of the Neva just in order to establish a brick business here. Indeed, the swamps testify to the presence of clay, the forest provides the firewood necessary for stoves, and the river is a convenient way for transportation.

It is known that after the expulsion of the Swedes, Peter I continued the creation of brick factories, as this was required by the construction of a new the capital that Peter planned to build out of brick and stone. He even ordered to paint his wooden house (the house of Peter the Great) “like a brick”, while the well-known Flemish masonry was imitated by many at that time.
In 1713, Peter I issued a special decree on the construction of new factories near St. Petersburg, ordering their owners "so that everyone in his factory makes at least a million bricks a year, and the more, the better." To work at the brick factories of the city, they began to collect craftsmen from all over Russia. In the same decree, under the threat of ruin and exile, the king forbade the construction of stone buildings in all other cities of the country. This was done on purpose so that masons and other artisans, left without work, would themselves be drawn to the construction of St. Petersburg.

Everyone entering St. Petersburg was obliged to pay a brick brought with him as a fare. According to one version, Brick Lane in St. Petersburg is named so precisely because at the place where it is located, the “brick tax” for entering the city was accepted and stored.

During the reign of Peter I, control over the quality of bricks was very strict. After transporting the bricks by water on ships (the most convenient way), they were loaded onto carts. After arriving at the destination, the bricks were dumped from the cart, and if at least three bricks were pricked, then the entire batch was considered defective.

How the bricks were made (weight and size)

Until the 19th century, bricks were formed by hand. This process took a lot of time and effort. They were dried only in the summer in the sun and fired in temporary outdoor ovens.

But already in the middle of the 19th century, the first ring kiln and belt press were built, which made it possible to make a revolution in the technique of brick production. Clay-working runners, rollers, and pug mills followed. And at the end of the 19th century, special dryers began to be built. In our time, the production of bricks is almost completely mechanized.

The average weight of a brick is about 4 - 4.5 kilograms. But there are also "babies" of 2.5 kg, as well as six-kilogram giants. Since manipulations in brick buildings are carried out manually, by the hands of masons, the greatest amount of work per unit of time is achieved only if a certain average weight of each brick is observed. From here the most advantageous, and therefore the most common size and weight of bricks is born.

The shape and dimensions of bricks have changed over the centuries, but always remained such that it was convenient for a bricklayer to work with him, i.e. so that the brick is commensurate with the size and strength of the mason's hand.

So, for example, Russian GOST requires that the weight of a brick does not exceed 4.3 kg. The modern standard brick received its dimensions in 1927 and remains so to this day: 250 x 120 x 65 mm.

Each face of a brick has its own name: the largest one, on which a brick is usually placed, is called a “bed”, the long side is called a “spoon”, and the small one is called a “poke”.

It is also worth adding here that for a tighter connection between the parts of the masonry, it is necessary to lay bricks in it either along or across to each other, this also explains the appearance of some common predominant format that is attached to the brick. As a result, length, width and thickness are related to each other approximately as 1:1/2:1/4, usually with some excess of thickness against this exact proportion.

stigma

Products of the 18th century mainly testify to the imperfection of hand-made technologies and, for the most part, do not have hallmarks. The first hallmarks on bricks appeared under Boris Godunov with the image of a unicorn and a double-headed eagle. On the contrary, samples of ceramics of the 19th century are distinguished by regular geometric dimensions, high strength indicators and the presence of hallmarks on almost all samples. Hallmarks are of particular interest and allow you to determine the name of brick factories and firms, as well as the geography of brick production.

In the Russian Empire at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century, in connection with the beginning of mass stone construction, the "Rules for making bricks at state and private factories" were adopted (January 27, 1847). According to them, the owners of the factories had to put their own brand on each manufactured brick, which was squeezed out on the raw material during its formation or drying. The hallmarks were animalistic (similar to animal paws), abbreviated (the initials of the owners) and rarely numeric (the year of manufacture). Bricks were also required to be stamped so that in the event of any disasters or destruction (which actually happened), their manufacturer could be identified.

In the practice of today's restoration work, various methods and techniques are used to date buildings and structures, their individual structures and details according to architectural, stylistic and technological features, according to the chemical, physical and metrological characteristics of building materials. One of such methods is dating by stamps on building materials and products. It should be noted that the concept of "dating by stamps" is used as a collective and conditionally applies not only to the stamps themselves, but also to factory, factory and trademarks and signs, all kinds of tags and plates, labels, as well as marks, markings and designations used on building and finishing materials and products.

Of course, the ideal version of the brand in general would be the presence of the date, the designation of the manufacturer and information about the place of production. Such hallmarks are rare on Russian items and mostly date back to the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Of the dated stamps, the oldest is the stamp "1777" on a poke of bricks from the buildings of the Marfino estate, Mytishchi district, Moscow region. It can be assumed that with the introduction of the Arabic designation of numbers by Peter I in 1700, various products, including building materials, including bricks, could have been stamped with the Arabic designation godya already in the first decade of the 18th century.

It should also be noted that the appearance of hallmarks on bricks with the image of a double-headed eagle coincides in time with the similar hallmarking of silver items by an eagle, i.e. by the middle of the 17th century. (in relation to this time, the term is appropriate not “stigmatize”, but “eagle”). Branding bricks with letters is information about the manufacturer. Sometimes these are initials, sometimes the name of the area, or a combination of both. However, when speaking about Arabic digital hallmarks, it is necessary to remember about possible exceptions. In 1979, when examining the eastern facade of the Church of the Ascension in the village of Kolomenskoye, the date “1533” was found in Arabic numerals carved on a white stone capital. It is likely that it was made by a foreign master.

Markings, tags and graffiti are extremely rare on white stone parts. In 1986, the brand of the master of the white-stone mortgage slab of 1532 was revealed in the patrimonial Church of the Annunciation in the village of Seredinsky byv. Vereisky district of the Moscow region. The multi-line inscription is made in ligature. In the lower right corner there is a cryptogram in the form of a twisted volute (rose) with the name of the master. The text ends with the words "... wrote" and then - a cryptogram that has suffered greatly from time.

In addition to the stigma, bricks are “identified” by color: for example, modern St. Petersburg brick (“marine”) is uniformly ocher.

Ancient freshwater - in a wide range: Kolpinsky clays taken from the Izhora River gave the brick a red color, Tosnensky clays - pink-yellow, clays taken on the Neva - mountain ash.

The study and "unraveling" of the stigma is a very exciting and informative process involving extremely important disciplines - history (local history), architecture and archeology. Brick marks can tell funny, tragic, and sometimes mystical stories.

For example, in the St. Petersburg brick museum there is a brick with a wolf's paw print, found near the Georgenburg castle in the Kaliningrad region. According to legend, when the Teutonic knights conquered Prussia in the 14th century, huge packs of wolves came out to defend their lands and began to besiege the castle occupied by the knights, leaving their paw prints on the stone.

Sometimes the stigma could become a successful marketing move against the background of competitors - for example, the owner of the Podkova plant, Major General Viktor Aleksandrovich Spechinsky, was allowed to brand bricks with this famous symbol for military merits of an officer of the cavalry Life Guards Regiment. It is not surprising that the business of the entrepreneur who used such a lucky “trademark” quickly went up.

There is an interesting story about the secrets of the brick business: Russian and foreign firms worked on the supply of building materials for the Cathedral of the Savior on Spilled Blood. Bricks were supplied by Russia's largest plant "Pirogranit" and Siegersdorf factories in Germany, which produced glazed bricks for facades. The Estonian firm Kos i Dürr took part in facing the walls of the building with Estonian marble. The cladding of the plinth with granite was carried out by the sculptural workshop of Gracioso Bota, well-known in St. Petersburg.

In 1861, Prince M. Golitsyn's Pyrogranit (Terracotta) plant began operating in Borovichi. At the end of XIX century Borovichi almost entered the world history of refractories. At the fireclay brick factory of Prince Golitsyn, master Matvey Veselov worked - an inventor of his own mind. I walked around the neighborhood, collected a handful of different clays, mixed them in different proportions, and burned them. Nobody knew about his exercises; his assistant was a deaf-mute and illiterate man. Finally, Veselov made a chocolate-colored facing brick in a shiny glaze. Showed to the owner. And then the World Exhibition of 1889 in Paris turned up. Golitsyn with his brick, which was called "pyrogranite", received the Big Silver Medal. Western industrialists were shocked: the facing material was of amazing strength and beauty - they already predicted the most expensive work.

Golitsyn was offered a contract to clad the redesigned wing of Buckingham Palace. The prince returned home and asked about the cost of the master's recipe. Hearing the price, he became furious and drove Veselov out of the factory. I thought that he would come to repent. And the master took to drink and ... died. They looked for the recipe in his papers, but did not find it. Already in Soviet times, the Institute of Refractories wanted to restore pyrogranite for lining the Moscow metro under construction, but the attempts were unsuccessful.

The most popular questions about bricks:
Why are old bricks so durable?

It's all about the clay from which the ceramic dough is prepared. Before the revolution, there were a large number of brick factories in the vicinity of St. Petersburg, up to ninety. These plants took the clay of the rivers and lakes of the ice age, its chemical composition did not give the same “efflorescence” and salt corrosion. Then these lacustrine-glacial deposits were scooped out. Modern factories operate on Cambrian clay. She is of marine origin. The current St. Petersburg was once the bottom of the ocean, so this clay is plentiful and very easy to mine, which is convenient for large-scale brick production. However, this clay is heavy, less neutral in chemical composition, and therefore modern bricks, after lying down even for one winter, can crumble.

For the restoration of ancient buildings of St. Petersburg, light clays of glacial origin are needed. Modern bricks made of Cambrian clay do not fit either in terms of color or texture. Therefore, for example, for the reconstruction of the Estonian Church on Dekabristov Street, Pskov bricks were taken, made from local clays of lacustrine-glacial origin.

The second question I get asked a lot is: Why are bricks made with holes?

Brick manufacturers, making “holes”, are guided by the following principles: saving material, lightening the weight of the brick and, as a result, the entire building. And also when laying due to the holes, a better grip occurs. Imagine how the mortar falls on a flat brick, and how it falls on a brick with holes. In the first case, it freezes with a flat cake, and in the second with the letter "T".

After laying hollow bricks, air remains in the holes, which serves as additional thermal insulation. Low coefficient of thermal conductivity, in contrast to the usual. With holes - more volume, less weight. One cubic meter of a standard size brick contains about 450 bricks. There are much fewer hollow pieces in a cube.

The author, of course, is not a rare collector, since a large number of people in different countries collect unique bricks. Already today, the Gosstroynadzor service and the expertise of St. Petersburg have opened the Museum of Building Materials (“Museum of Bricks” Yuzhnoe shosse, 55). Specially made showcases that can withstand one and a half tons of rare building materials. Bricks of the 17th century are considered to be the most ancient, once used to build a stove on a Dutch ship, and later discovered in the Peter and Paul Fortress. One of the curious personalized specimens is a brick with the name Lenin, made in the 19th century. But he had nothing to do with the leader of the proletariat. It was a strong old brick - branded in pre-revolutionary orthography. In the 19th century, a certain Pyotr Semenovich Lenin owned a brick factory in the vicinity of St. Petersburg.

I keep my collection of bricks in the country, and if there is a place and there is an opportunity to make an exhibition, I will transfer them to the Mining University. Like many collectors, I have my own website where you can look at photographs of rare bricks and read their stories. I also specify other collections:

Brick collection by Evgeny Kuritsyn http://zhenya-kouritsin.narod.ru/

More Pechey Company http://morepechey.ru/internet-magazin?mode=folder&folder_id=12429606

Collection of bricks. Hallmarks of the Petersburg province http://www.v-smirnov.ru/coll.htm

Anna Bokovnya. A collection of branded bricks produced at brick factories in St. Petersburg and its environs in the 19th - early 20th

centuries History in brick stamps. http://www.aroundspb.ru/gallery.php?path=/variety/photos/brick

Collection of old bricks. http://www.oldbricks.info/

Brick Museum http://www.pobedalsr.ru/muzey

Literature

Levakov I.A. . MNPP "Restoration Center". Institute Spetsproektrestavratsiya, 1993; Portal "Archaeology of Russia", 2005. //
http://www.archeologia.ru/Library/Book/2035a5646a32/page3

Filippov A.V. Reports from the laboratory of the ceramic installation. issue 1, M., 1940.

Gelfeld L.S. Fundamentals of restoration of architectural metal. Classification of architectural metal. / In-t Spetsproektrestavratsiya. M, 1991.

Giza M.E . Essays on the history of artistic design in Russia in the 18th - early 20th centuries. L .: Publishing house of Leningrad State University, 1978.

Kandaurov D. P . Factory enterprises of the Russian Empire. Petrograd: Printing house t-va under the firm "Electroprinting house N.Ya. Stoykova, 1914.

Kiselev I.A. Dating of brickwork of the 16th-19th centuries. by visual characteristics. Method. allowance. / In-t Spetsproektrestavratsiya. M., 1990.

Postnikova-Loseva M.M. Russian jewelry art: its centers, masters. XVI-XIX centuries Moscow: Nauka, 1974.

Sivak S.I. Activities of the tiling workshop of the Iversky Valdai Monastery in the second half of the 17th century. // Restoration and research of cultural monuments. Issue. III. M: Stroyizdat, 1990.

The factory of merchants brothers Ivan and Vladimir Vasilievich Lyadov existed since 1841 in the village of Ust-Slavyanka on the right bank of the river. Slavyanki. It is possible that there were several factories (including one above the Novosaratovskaya colony on the right bank of the Neva River) and subsequently the affairs of the brothers were divided. It is known that in the 1860s a separate brand of Ivan Lyadov "I.L." (used the original circular frame). In 1867, one of the factories (on the Izhorka River) was sold to L.A. Vitovsky. However, in 1881 one of the factories still had two owners, but by 1887 only Vladimir Lyadov remained the owner of the factory. Subsequently, the plant passed to his wife Ekaterina Vasilievna. There is also evidence that in the same places in 1897, in the Ovtsino colony (the Neneroi estate), a new plant was being built by their relatives: hereditary honorary citizen Mikhail Vladimirovich (one of the sons of V.V. and E.V. Lyadov) and Alexei Konstantinovich Lyadov (apparently their nephew). At the same time, the manager of the plant was K.V. Lyadov (possibly another son of the Lyadovs). The stigma “ZBL”, like “Br.L.”, most likely refers to the founders of the business.

The brick was produced at a factory owned by Fedor Alfredovich Hill. The plant was located in the village of Ust-Izhora and, having started work in 1897, worked at least until 1914. Brands with the spelling of the surname in capital and capital letters are known. Refractory sand-lime bricks are produced in the south of Sweden in the village of HOGANAS in the province of Skane, located 20 km from Helsingborg. Thanks to the joint deposits of coal and clay, in 1832, the production of bricks and ceramics began, thanks to which this place became famous. At work, due to the lack of local labor, Russian prisoners of war were also used. The production of bricks was closed after 1926. Varieties of stamps are known that differ in font and size, as well as the presence of symbols in the form of an anchor with the abbreviation HSB - Höganäs Stenkols Bolag (Hoganas Mining Enterprise).

The refractory brick factory traces its history back to 1875, when Karl Küster opened his first coal mine in the village of SKROMBERGA in Skane, Sweden's southernmost province. When things went badly at the mine, in 1888 Küster sold the mine to new owners, who instead of coal found rich deposits of clay in the mines and began to actively develop them. In 1986, the company was sold to the Finnish concern "Partek" and the historical circle closed - the president of "Partek" is married to the granddaughter of Karl Küster ...

The bricks were produced at factories owned by the Eliseev family (most likely, they did not have direct family ties with the famous Russian traveler A.V. Eliseev and the famous merchants Eliseev).

Locomotive

Nowadays, the Borovichi brick factory dates back to 1855, when Mr. Nobel founded in the Novgorod province in Borovichi, its first factory of refractory products. Then, in 1880, a native of German industrialists, a merchant of the first guild, Konstantin Logginovich Vakhter, founded several factories, which received their name from the first letters of the Greek alphabet. To date, 3 hallmarks "ALFA", "BETA" and "GAMMA" are known. Before the First World War, the Borovichi plants produced about 40% of all refractories in Russia. According to some reports, one of the brick factories was founded in 1910.

The brick was found in Egypt in the city of Cairo. On the ruins of a building built in 1956. This brick is fireclay, stake. At the moment, the plant and manufacturer have not yet been determined.

This brick was received on exchange from Ukraine from the city of Lvov. This brand stands for CegielniaZwiazkowa Kozielniki. The owners of the plant for the production of this brick were Lviv architects Julian Sosnowski, Alfred Zakharevich and industrialist Neuvoner (Julian Sosnowski, Alfred Zachariewicz, Neuwohner). It is difficult to say about the location of the plant.

And in conclusion, I would like to say that it is not the brick itself that arouses my interest, but the information that it carries.

Application

Yesterday, walking with our little ones, we walked along the South Road to its very end at the pier overlooking the closing span of the WHSD and the new Zenith Arena stadium under construction (the former Kirov Stadium).
Here, on the unkempt embankment, which in its best years was a beach for sunbathing and swimming. Today, here, muddy personalities burn shish kebabs on the grills and drink strong or beer.
About 15-16 years ago, I wandered in these places and further to the tip of Krestovsky where a belfry with an electric organ was being built and observed huge placers of historical branded brick brought and dumped at the water's edge. Now it is not possible to go to the tip of the island. Due to the construction, everything is fenced and the access control of the passage and passage has been introduced. And as can be judged from Google satellite maps, soil has been dumped at the tip of the island, concrete pads, and most likely all the bricks - "brick flash drives of St. But I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about Petersburg...

My attempts to find something interesting were limited to the territory of this abandoned and littered beach.
Unfortunately, I could not select and bring it to my home collection and took only photographs. As a rule, the local brick is badly broken or licked by a river wave and there are practically no marks. But you can find some of the whole, and armed with a pick and shovel, there is a chance to catch a few quite decent specimens.

Brick "R.R." framed and with house number №47.
Most likely, the stigma bears the initials of Vladimir Alexandrovich, Ratkov-Razhnov (1834-1912) - Russian public figure, entrepreneur and industrialist, senator, active privy councillor. Belongs to an ancient noble family of the Kostroma province.

In 1857 he graduated from the law faculty of St. Petersburg University with a degree in law and entered the civil service in the office of the Senate. He held the positions of assistant secretary and chief secretary in various departments.
A nobleman, a real privy councilor, a lawyer, a public and statesman. Mayor of St. Petersburg (1893-1898), senator (since 1904), owner of the Gromov timber exchange, the largest in Russia.

Since 1874, the owner of the company "Gromov and Kє" (processing and trade in timber and timber products) and the largest Gromovskaya Timber Exchange in Russia (sawmills: Shlisselburgsky Trakt, 57, Orlovskaya St., 1; warehouse - Bolshaya Nevki Embankment , 13; wholesale offices - Millionnaya st., 7, Gelsingforsskaya st., 4); co-owner of the Lensky and Miass gold mines. partnerships, Upper Amur gold industry. company, St. Petersburg. Private commercial jar. Owner ok. 20 tenement houses in St. Petersburg. (Palace emb., 8, Dumskaya st., 7, Nevsky avenue, 152, Gorokhovaya st., 79, etc.)
At home:
Kirochnaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 34
Kirochnaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 32
Pestelya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 13
Pestelya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 15

He was buried together with his son Ilya (sc. 1907) and brother Ratkov-Rozhnov Alexei Alexandrovich (1829-1909).
Russia. Saint Petersburg. Necropolis of the 18th century. Corner of Betancourt and Rossievskaya paths. Byzantine-style chapel, 1910s.
His heirs owned the firm "Gromov and Co."
The plant was located in the Shlisselburg district, in the village of Malye Porogi (1896-1917).
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BRICK factory "ENERGIA"

The owner of the plant is Nikolai Fedorovich Nikolaev or / and (to A. Kanegisser (?)). Plant on Izhora. Office on Serdobolskaya street 4-6
And here the intrigue crept in!
According to Wikipedia, Uritsky was killed by Leonid Kanegisser.

(in the photo on the right: the son of A. Kannegisser, on the left S. Yesenin)

And, again, according to information from there, his father was Akaki Samuilovich Kanegisser, the owner of this brick factory.
Years of production: 1910s.

BRICK "Ukke & Co"
Several buildings of the "Red Triangle" and its dormitories were built from such bricks. The brick factory belonged to the company "Ukke and Co", which was owned by a nobleman (from the Russified Germans), a member of the board of the Society of the Borovichi Plant of Refractory and Acid-Resistant Products Ludwig Yulievich Ukke. them in 1887. was bought and rebuilt brick factory, previously built in the 1860s by Nikolai Kochetov near the village of Ust-Izhora. In the same year, a second plant appeared in the village of Ust-Tosna, and in 1897. - and the third in the village of Ust-Slavyanka. Ukke's companions were I.W. Schmidt and A.E. Stritter. Attention is drawn to the variety of hallmark options (at least two dozen variations) with different number arrangements (to the right or left of the inscription "Ukke" "and Ukke and Co"), as well as the use of the letters "C", "T" and "B" in the upper semicircle. The letter "C" means "Slavic" plant, which was located in Ust_Slavyankei and which the company "Ukke" owned jointly with P.A. Geiermans. The letter "T" indicates the "Tosnensky" plant in Tosna, and "B" - possibly the manager Bogdanovich. It is quite possible that the Tosnensky plant also used the stamp "U.Z.U" ("Ust_Tosnensky plant Ukke").

They mention that "... On Zhdanovskaya embankment, they are demolishing an old house where there was a kind of medical facility." Bricks "Strelin" probably from this building.
The owner of the plant is Makariy Timofeevich Strelin. Years of production: 1875-1900. The owner of the plant is Alexei Makarovich Strelin. Years of production 1897-1910s. The owner of the plant is Vasily Makarovich Strelin. Years of production 1910. Office at 5th Rozhdestvenskaya, 11

The brick was found on the roof of the house on Kolomenskaya street. It is also present in the building of the hospital mortuary on Troitsky Prospekt and in the buildings of the abandoned quarter on Bratskaya Street (there are also bricks from Strelina br.). Produced at the factories of a peasant (and later a merchant and hereditary honorary citizen) Makariy Timofeevich Strelin. One of the factories, built in 1875, was located along the Slavyanka River in the village of Ust-Izhora and was bought from the merchant Anna Semyonovna Vandrukhova in 1882. The second plant was located in the Ovtsino colony on the right bank of the Neva and was built in 1897. The business was subsequently continued by the sons Alexei (he used the brand “AMS”) and Vasily Makarovichi. Most likely, around 1910, the joint brand “Br. Strelina” appeared.
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Looking forward to your comments below. Bricks with what marks did you come across? What brands are you interested in?

Office mansion "Novo-Issakievsky" is a building of the 18-19th century, completely built of brick. The house stands so confidently for about 250 years, because it has historically been lucky with the building material. According to expert estimates, the building was built of high-strength bricks, and the reason for this is history.

The fact is that the development of the brick craft in Russia was influenced by the reforms of Peter the Great. Under Peter I, the quality of bricks was assessed very strictly. A batch of bricks brought to the construction site was simply dumped from the cart: if more than three pieces were broken, then the entire batch was rejected.

It is interesting that in 1704 Peter I issued a special decree "On the establishment of new brick factories near St. Petersburg" and from all over Russia they began to gather craftsmen to work at brick factories. The tsar forbade the construction of stone buildings in all other cities of the country, so that masons and other workers themselves would be drawn to the construction of St. Petersburg. Masters were taken to the Northern capital, including by force…

Of course, there was not enough brick, brick factories throughout Russia could be counted on one hand, but the most cunning people quickly found a way to deceive the tsar and not follow the decree to build from brick. They built an ordinary wooden house, sculpted a thin layer of clay on the walls, which they painted “like a brick”. When driving fast, it was impossible to distinguish a painted house from a capital one. So the resourceful workers who painted concrete under tiles in Moscow not much different from the "false masons" of Peter the Great.

Everyone who entered the capital was obliged to pay a brick brought with him as a fare. According to one version, Brick Lane, located not far from the business center, is named so precisely because at the place where it is located, the “brick tax” for entering the city was accepted and stored.

By the end of the 19th century, a real brick diaspora had formed in St. Petersburg - about 80 factories. They were owned by people of different classes: peasants, and nobles, and princes, and barons, and soldiers, and state councilors, and hereditary honorary citizens, and even the widows of major generals. To increase the success of the business, they began to put a brand on the products, most often it was the name of the owner of the production. If a brick was bad, then the 19th century consumer knew who to complain about. Therefore, manufacturers are pretty worried about quality.

A significant part of our building, the former home of the Sarepta Society, was built in the 18th century from older, yet unstamped brick, which is smaller and dark red in color. However, during the reconstruction of the building, a number of old branded bricks were found. These bricks were used for the addition of new outbuildings and for repairs in the 19th century. and the beginning of the 20th century. All of them were made at the factories of the St. Petersburg province.

The imprint of a horseshoe is the trademark of the Spechinsky plant. Most of the time, the plant belonged to the widow of a major general from the cavalry Evgenia Ivanovna Spechinsky. It was not possible to fit a long surname on a brick, but she simply did not want to write the initials of the “general”. Then the idea of ​​the “unfolded horseshoe” was born. This original stamp carries several meanings at once: firstly, the first letter of the owner’s surname is read, secondly, a horseshoe is depicted on the Spechinsky family coat of arms (of Polish origin), and finally, this is a reflection of the occupation of the late husband of Spechinsky.

Strelin is the surname of a peasant (and later a merchant and hereditary honorary citizen) Makariy Timofeevich Strelin, who owned two brick factories.

Samarka is the name of the estate located on the banks of the Neva, of which it was a settlement for seasonal workers. Samarka was in the possession of the State Councilor Baron Vladimir Andreevich Rennenkampf, who had a large (400 workers) brick factory in it and used the stamps "V.R." (initials, earlier) and "Samarka".

During the reconstruction, “Ukke” bricks were also found, which were preserved and laid out with the branded side specially so that the brand could be read. Today, this piece of the wall is an adornment of the meeting room of one of the tenants' campaigns. Ukke is another example of a stamp on the name of the owner of the plant. The plant belonged to the company "Ukke and Co", which was owned by a nobleman (from Russified Germans) Ludwig Yulievich Ukke.

We thank Vladimir Smirnov and his site "Brick heritage". An enthusiastic brick collector visited us and convinced us that walls can not only hear, but also speak.

Today, these branded bricks, found during the reconstruction, have taken a worthy place in the meeting room of the Novo-Isaakievsky Administration and are among the first exhibits of the Museum of the Sarepta House, which the owners plan to organize.