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EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
Of common brick, 2,801,832,000 were made, and 37,- 428,000 pressed brick and 60,072,000 fire-brick. In the city of Philadelphia alone, the product is commonly believed to exceed one hundred millions (100,000,000) annually.
Terra-Cotta.
In the industry of architectural terra-cotta we have a revival of a most ancient art, practised by the Egyptians, Assyrians, and the Chaldeans; familiar to the Greeks and Romans ; and not unknown in Europe in the middle ages. Terra-cotta enamelled decorated surfaces in colors are also ancient. Beckwith says : " The distinctive feature of Babylonian architecture is the profuse employment of colored decoration. The temple towers of the Chaldeans were built in many stories, faced with enamelled bricks of colors corresponding to the planets. In the Temple of the Moon at Mughier, bricks or tiles, glazed with a blue enamel, were fastened externally to walls of burnt brick. The domestic dwellings of the Chaldeans were ornamented externally by diapered patterns of colored bricks, and internally with colored cones of terra-cotta.” * The colors used in ancient Egyptian decoration were red, yellow, blue and green. Black and white were added.
The greatly increased use of terra-cotta dates from the commencement of the last decade, and it has been steadily finding favor with architects and the public. When properly made it has great strength,—even greater than many kinds of stone used for building,—and, as regards durability, it is superior. Mr. Henry Cole says: "It is more durable than even ordinary granite, as may be seen on the lodge in Merrion Square, Dublin, which was built about 1786. The granite mouldings there are cut in stone from the Wicklow mountains ; they are all worn away and rounded by the action of the rain, while Coade’s terra-cottas, dated 1788, are as sharp as when they were first placed on this lodge.” f Another example is found in Sutton House, in Surrey, which is covered with terra-cotta, ornamented about the year 1530
* Pottery, Terra-Cotta, Stoneware, Fire-Brick, etc., by Arthur Beckwith, p. 86.
t Reports on the Paris Universal Exhibition, 1867, II., 415.