As a young art teacher, (before I completely lost my mind and went to
architecture school), I did some set design.  I assure you that if some
handy photo of a bunch of bricks, wall, fireplace or chimney, weren't
immediately at hand, I'd have just made up something that looked
good...probably from somewhere out in the audience.  I not only didn't
plan to please a mason in the audience, it probably never occurred to
me that one might be there.  (Something in this line of thought goes to
why I found the recent articles in Newsweek about DESIGN kinda scary).

My daughter is now an art teacher.  And she does a LOT of set design.
I assure you, her concerns for accuracy make mine look downright
sensitive.

You have put in far too much thought on this.  But as long as you are
thinking.  Try looking at the architectural details next time you are
in a museum.  The ones in the exhibits about architecture are the ones
that drive me nutz.  You'll go up to an exhibit in a history museum
about log construction and the logs will be assembled in ways that are
very creative, and reflect well on the craftsmanship and the tools of
the exhibit fabricator.  I suppose most people won't notice how nicely
spaced and patterned the ax marks are, or how snuggly the logs fit
together over their whole length.  Pointing out these things to the
responsible exhibit fabricators, designers and and historians won't get
you an invite to the grand opening party either.

I gotta go.

-jc




On Monday, October 27, 2003, at 01:13  AM, Lawrence Kestenbaum wrote:

> One of the inevitable effects of fatherhood is that you get to see a
> lot
> of kid-oriented movies on video over and over and over again.
> Sometimes,
> on the nth viewing of something, you notice details that you missed the
> first n-1 times, when you were distracted by things like dialog and
> plot.
>
> In the movie "Mary Poppins", much of the action takes place in a house
> on
> "Cherry Tree Lane", London, in a world that was probably constructed
> inside a sound stage or on a back lot in Culver City.
>
> On the whole, whoever built the sets did a decent and nicely detailed
> job
> of it.
>
> One detail which startled me.  When George Banks tears up his
> childrens'
> plea for a sweet, rosy-cheeked nanny, and throws the pieces into the
> fireplace, it can be seen that the blackened firebrick (lining the
> back of
> the fireplace) is laid in Flemish Bond.  (Or, I suppose, technically,
> the
> plaster they actually used to build the sets was scored to resemble
> Flemish Bond.)
>
> This seems just too bizarre -- almost an architectural inside joke.
> But
> maybe they were re-creating a real London house, down to the brickwork
> details inside the fireplace.
>
> So my question -- have you ever seen the brickwork inside a fireplace
> done
> in Flemish Bond?  Why would anyone do this in real life?
>
> A professor in an unrelated field who claims some knowledge of brick
> laying responded as follows:
>
>> I would not expect the interior of a real fireplace, in which fires
>> are
>> built, to be laid in anything but running bond, and of course with
>> firebrick, not common clay bricks. The reason is to minimize joints
>> and
>> to accomodate the expansion and contraction of heating cycles, which a
>> bond would not do as well. There is also no need for a bond as the
>> firebrick lining is not load-supporting and is usually just backed
>> with
>> ordinary bricks. In addition, the firebrick is often laid on edge so
>> as
>> to use fewer bricks.
>
> Another amateur brickwork critic wrote this:
>
>> Flemish bond does seem like an odd choice for a fireplace.  Maybe the
>> set designer was looking at a brick wall when he did the fireplace,
>> instead of an actual fireplace.  I have seen *some* things done in a
>> fireplace for decorative effect (curved rear corners, for example,
>> made
>> with partial bricks.)
>
> Any thoughts?
>
>                               Larry
>
> ---
> Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
> The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com
> Polygon, the Dancing Bear, http://potifos.com/polygon
> Mailing address: P.O. Box 2563, Ann Arbor MI 48106
>
> --
> To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
> uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
> <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
>
>
John Callan, Architect, Inc.
Historic Preservation and Museum Services
784 Deerwood Circle
Lino Lakes, Minnesota  55014-5433

(651) 486-0890
[log in to unmask]