A brick mark (also called a bricklayer’s mark) is a decorative figure formed in brickwork by deliberately using bricks of a contrasting colour — often only their headers. The result is a diamond, cross, date, heart, windmill or set of initials worked into the face of the wall.
How they are made
In an old clamp or field kiln not every brick fired the same. Bricks close to the fire came out dark: over-fired or flared (partly vitrified, blackish), smoked (grey to black) or glazed (glossy). Those “misfires” were not good enough for even facework, but they were ideal for drawing with. The bricklayer set them at fixed points in the bond and produced a pattern that contrasts with the red or yellow wall.
Today smoked and glazed bricks are available as a standard product, so the effect can be designed deliberately.
Meaning and distribution
Brick marks occur across north-west Europe from the return of brick as a building material in the twelfth century onwards. Sizes range from a single small diamond to motifs filling an entire gable. A protective meaning was often attached to them: protection against misfortune, lightning or evil influence. They also served as a date, a house mark, or simply as decoration and proof of craftsmanship.
From the eighteenth century the practice declined — earlier in Protestant regions — but diamond and cross patterns returned in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as purely decorative devices.
Doing it yourself
- Draw the motif on squared paper first, with one square representing one brick header; only then will the pattern line up with the bond
- Choose bricks from the same batch and the same format; only the colour should differ, never the size
- Keep the bond intact: the mark must not disrupt it, or you weaken the wall
- The greater the viewing distance, the larger and simpler the motif has to be
Related terms
- Masonry bond
- Brick
- Carpenters’ marks
- Tumbling in
- Wall plaque
- Ornament
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