The subject of brickmaking and the uses of bricks is fascinating and
intricate. You really can't study brickmaking in isolation from the
architecture to which it contributed, so much of the archaeologically
useful material is found in architectural literature.
Here are a few references of my own personal knowledge that might add to
the bibliography. Apologies if it reflects my own research too much.
While today's brickmaker might be able to control the texture and color of
his product, the traditional brickmaker would produce everything from the
soft and absorbent underfired "soakers" to the hard glazed and distorted
stoneware bricks. Each type of brick had a specific use, which enabled the
country brickmaker to meet all his customer's needs in a single fired
clamp.
In Virginia churches, for example, the glazed bricks provided a black
decorative element, the hard even-colored red bricks were used as
rubbed-work decoration, and the waste was used as a foundation for the
aisle pavement.
It is therefore important in a folk environment to include an understanding
of the bricks' eventual use in the interpretation of the clamp in which
they were fired. Fortunately, clamps often were fired near the jobsite, so
that the clamp and the building can be interpreted together. In some cases,
notably the church in Chuckatuck, Virginia, the clamp was actually fired
inside the eventual building site.
As brickmaking technology improved, architectural innovation became
technically possible. It should, therefore, be possible to date the
brickmaking innovations in an area according to the introduction of
architectural innovations.
Heite, Edward F.
"Colonial brick technology," Conference on Historic Site Arch=E6ology Papers=
,
1968, pages 43-49.
Heite, Edward F.
"Several Virginia Brick Clamps: A Summary of Brickmaking," Quarterly
Bulletin Archeological Society of Virginia, 1973.
Heite, Louise
"A survy of Richmond Brickwork, 1790 - 1856," Quarterly Bulletin
Archeological Society of Virginia, March 1969.
Nathaniel Lloyd
A History of English Brickwork. Reissued 1972 by Benjamin Blom, Inc., New Yo=
rk.
Loth, Calder
"Notes on the evolution of Virginia brickwork from the seventeenth century
to the late nineteenth century," Bulletin of the Association fro
Preservation Technology, Vol. VI, No. 2, 1974, pages 82 - 120. Bibliography
of brick by Edward Heite.
=46or an excellent survey of a brickmaking complex, see the J. H. Wilkerson
and Sons Brick Works, near Milford, Delaware, HAER DE 5. A sheet from this
survey of a 1912 factory is reproduced on page 220 of the volume HISTORIC
AMERICA, a summary of HABS and HAER published in 1983 by the Library of
Congress, and found in most preservation agencies.
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