Talking Brick

[toddrandolph]

sidewalk brick. The ones made down along the Ohio River tend to have this dark glossy look to them

 

[bottle_head9]

Very cool!!

 

[swizzle]

I know they are collectable. I've been to the brickcollectors site and checked them out. I just don't have much interest in them. I find out who made them, if they're local and any history and then go back to bottles. I have a few other bricks. M.B. and N.E.B.Co. If someone wanted to buy them I'd sell them all. It be nice to do a bottle brick swap with another local. Maybe I should take a pic of all of them and see if anyone wants to make an offer on craigslist for them. Is there a way to get a value on these? The M.B. & N.E.B.Co have to be newer. They have the recessed panel with the letters that stand out while this one that I found yesterday is just stamped and rather crude. I was noticing the one pic that you have of the brick with the uneven edge. That looks very similar to the one I just found. What would cause that. I figured that even a hundred years ago they still had the means to make a perfectly square mold. Was this done intentionally? Swiz

 

[hissonut1]

Nice brick! I know nothing about it but it seems like a good old one. Believe it or not there are some avid brick collectors out there, but I know of only 2 personally, one who is quite serious is a 30+ year bottle collector which is the main focus, and the other is an eccentric antique-shop owner on Chincoteague Island who also deals in bottles and wants to be interred in a mausoleum built out of his brick collection []. The hobbies must go hand-in-hand!

I will save the cool ones I find out and about, and have accumulated quite a few "good" ones. I have some with a singular debossed star from a pre-civil war era brick factory out in the country near Henry, Illinois, plus several bricks debossed with big fat letters reading "Heckard & Sons Canton, ILL" which I have actually seen sell for around 20 bucks a pop. I have access to a bunch more too, and may have to obtain them if I feel like it.

The most insane bricks out there are the "Culver Blocks" with 1901 patents. They were used to build the Indianapolis motor speedway nascar track , and although most of them were used elsewhere, people sell those things for 20-500 bucks each claiming them to be actual bricks from the track! Here in Champaign, IL I could get a truckload of those pieces of crap, sell them as the original bricks used in the speedway, and make a fortune. Just search eBay and you will see the scam they are running, it is so silly (but very tempting!).

Not 300 yards from me is an entire wall built out of those old paving bricks which is being demolished, and some roads here were made of them too which are getting torn up. Some asshole is selling them at 52.85 each in a large dutch auction (was selling them for 65 earlier) and recently sold 4 to 1 person! I might have to go do the same, just at the righteous deal of 20 bucks a pop...

I think P.T. Barnum would be selling them too if he were still around. []

Would you be able to show me a photo of your single embossed star brick you found near Henry?