HOUSE AND GARDEN 
May, 1911. 
smooth wall face will weave a pat¬ 
tern of decorative worth and 
beauty, and third, that in which 
the element of color enters, and 
bricks of different hues are em¬ 
ployed. Of course any of these 
varieties may be combined or all 
may be used at once. 
The first variety is the common¬ 
est. We find examples every¬ 
where in cornices, pilasters, 
molded or projecting horizontal 
bands, quoins — block-like corner 
projections as in the illustration — 
and half a dozen other forms. 
There is scarcely a brick building 
so severely plain as not to furnish 
some detail or ornament. In our 
cities, whichever way we turn, we 
find both dwelling houses and pub¬ 
lic buildings in abundance, adorned 
with brick cornices, some of them 
elaborate, some so simple that they 
scarcely afford a precarious nest¬ 
ing place for the sparrows that infest them. In this connection 
we can study with profit the work to be found on many of the 
old French chateaux, farmhouses, dove-cotes and barns dating 
from the Renaissance period. Another simple but effective form 
of ornament is found in countersunk or projecting string or belt 
courses. Often a single belt course between floors will transform 
a distinctly plain and unprepossessing building into a comely one. 
Sometimes by way of a frieze, or to relieve the monotony of a 
wall surface, a course of pilasters and arches may be brought out 
in high relief, the intervening panels being flush with the rest of 
the wall. Then again, brick foundations may be brought a foot 
or so above the ground and then graduated to the wall face by a 
molded cap course. In old houses we not infrequently see round 
arches above square windows, the 
tympanum (the part enclosed by 
the curved top) of the arch being 
countersunk several inches. An¬ 
other simple form or ornamenta¬ 
tion is to be found in the quoins 
so often met with on structures of 
Colonial date. Their interlocking 
appearance imparts an air of solid¬ 
ity and strength to a building. 
They were apparently once in¬ 
tended to stiffen the corners like 
buttresses, and were very likely 
borrowed from stone masonry. 
Even now, when their structural 
bonding function is not very seri¬ 
ously regarded, they do undoubt¬ 
edly stiffen the corners, and as 
ornaments their presence is de¬ 
sirable although they are in a 
measure but survivals, like the 
sword buttons on our coat tails, 
or the vermiform appendix. All 
these forms of brick ornamenta¬ 
tion, and more in the same category, are so common that for the 
most part we pass them by unconscious of their existence, but all 
possess genuine worth and possibilities, and all may add much 
character if judiciously employed. They are worthy of close 
study. 
That sort of bricklaying which is ornamental in the pattern 
woven on the flat wall surface, opens up broad opportunities for 
originality and ingenuity. It may be either simple and direct, or 
highly elaborated in response to a wealth of imagination on the 
part of the designer. A careful investigation of this subject 
should be enough to convince anyone that ornamental brickwork 
may be perfectly dignified and legitimate, and plentifully pos¬ 
sessed of scope for diversification without having to descent to 
34i 
The Colony Club, New York—an example of the patterned 
surface and also of the value of countersunk areas in a 
brick wall surface. McKim, Mead & White, architects 
The hunting lodge of Moulemont, France. 
An example of the diaper pattern obtain¬ 
able by different hued brick 
San Stefano shows ornamentation obtained 
in bonding, as well as the use of colored 
marble pieces set flush with the surface 
A chimney from the Chateau of Blois, 
France—alternating panels of herring¬ 
bone and running bond, with stone quoins 
