We decided the front of our house needed repainting. The front wall has two coping stones, one at either end. One of them was in dire straits – cracked and crumbling. I hoped the decorator would be able to save it. Everything else looked rather neglected. I felt a bit like that too …
It’s difficult to choose a painter. We used to have one we could call on but he has retired. In the end I chose somebody who had been in the business for forty years and was still going. Maybe a little more expensive but worth it for gained knowledge and skill – and for me, peace of mind.
I have a window box on the sill in front of the bay window which is lifted up by two old, buff coloured bricks, stamped with the name ‘PETHER’S PATENT’. I’ve had these ‘vintage’ bricks for a long time. It was only recently that I found bricks like these are quite sought after. But mine have had a rough life and are definitely not the ‘sought after’ ones!
I was intrigued however to find that my two bricks were stamped with a name and an online search rewarded me with a mine of information. These are from the nineteenth century, famous for their elaborate designs and used in Victorian gothic architecture. They were also used for the London sewers and the Thames embankment.
This brick was invented by Alfred Pether, and manufactured by the Burham Brick, Lime and Cement company in Aylesford, Kent. The brickworks closed in 1941.
I also found some information about the Pether family, one of whom, Henry Pether, (1800-1880) was a landscape painter of moonlit scenes of nineteenth century Britain, Paris and Venice. He also painted Vesuvius erupting and his art was exhibited at The Royal Academy in London.
Scaffolding went up. Scraping, sanding and painting began. At one point I lost sight of the bricks and began to think maybe they had gone AWOL. Slightly anxiously I started to look for similar ones online. I only needed two. Some name stamped bricks are really expensive – for a brick. I had a distressing dream of losing things and wishing I had a gadget to track them down. But I don’t warm to gadgets much, even though they can be useful, even life saving.
Someone I knew lost their phone and, using ‘find my phone’, it was located next day in the long grass, twenty miles away. Luckily, it hadn’t rained in the night! My bricks surely couldn’t have made off that far!
On the internet I came upon a picture of an old brick for sale which called out to me. It`s original – the one and only brick ever like this in the whole world, which can never be replaced. It could be imitated in reproduction but, like a painting, it is truly original. I was enchanted by its special, individual ‘stamp’.
I then asked the painter if he remembered the bricks which held up my window box. He had stowed them away safely! Out of what might have been a loss has come something I would never have thought of looking for – and which delights me out of all proportion to what it is – a brick!
Part 2
What am I doing? Admin, more and more admin … I needed to jump out of this suffocating box which knows nothing about freeform imagination.
I have bought the brick. Two days later a large, rectangular shaped package was lying in the porch, covered in FRAGILE labels. Once I had taken off the bubble wrap there it lay, wrapped in an old bit of hessian. I was on tenterhooks. Sometimes anticipation is more exciting. Like some holidays.
I made coffee so I could sit down quietly to unwrap the final packaging.
The brick looks just like the photo – it’s brilliant! I have my very own Van Gogh.
I notice that the paw print pressed on the liquid brick had pushed it up a little and that made me love it even more. This is a cat’s paw. If it had been a fox you would have seen claw marks too. Cats retract their claws.
I wondered what the cat was like. Tabby, black, brindled, ginger – certainly curious. How did it get into the brick works? Maybe it was employed as a rat catcher. One end of the brick is painted white. So maybe the paw print was hidden inside the wall, only to be found when that wall was demolished?
Anyway, the front of the house now looks lovely and I’m about to put back my window boxes, balanced on ‘Pether’s Patent’ bricks.
When I went to do this I found our daughter had left about fifteen ferns in the front garden, taken from her Chelsea Flower Show site as they wrapped it all up. They all look very vibrant and are calling out for a ‘fernery’ to be established in our (small) garden.
It’s been an interestng week, despite the unforgiving heatwave reducing me to a melting jelly. Happy weekend.
