Frank Lloyd Wright Glass Tiles

sgrdst82 · Post by **sgrdst82** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 11:08 pm

I purchased 3 at $50... I didn't think I would have to worry about them being reproductions at the time. But the tile has the ..K.. at the bottom. I would take a picture but the tiles are at my boyfriends place. I have not been able to find any pics online with other tiles with K's on them.

swernecke · Post by **swernecke** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 11:12 pm

Oh wow! I will be sure to ask my dad tomorrow about the flowers if he has noticed any K's on them. We're trying to get rid of ours still... cheaper than what you paid too lol

sgrdst82 · Post by **sgrdst82** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 11:16 pm

I didn't know anything about these tiles until I did the research afterwords. I'm afraid to find out if they are legit tiles... I paid way too much for them.

sgrdst82 · Post by **sgrdst82** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 11:37 pm

one more question... How much are you selling a tile for?

swernecke · Post by **swernecke** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 11:50 pm

sgrdst82 wrote:one more question... How much are you selling a tile for?

In the ballpark of $15-$25 a tile.. but we've got full panes as well.

krietzerjak · Post by **krietzerjak** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 1:28 am

I have been watching for 15 to 20 years, and have not noticed any reproductions so far. Ones with a K are just a different variation. I don't think you overpaid.

Andy

krietzerjak · Post by **krietzerjak** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 1:40 am

The only thing close to what would be a reproduction, 10 or so years ago they made a glass tile with the "flower design" on one side, but the back was smooth. Might have had 4 rubber feet on the smooth side. They were sold as drink coasters. I have never heard of any complete reproductions with the prism backs. By 1920, they would have not needed these as they were made for the pre-electric light era.

Andy

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Fri Sep 06, 2019 3:15 pm

Bringing this thread forward from the pre-outage mists....keywords:
Luxfer, Prism, Prisms, glass, tile, tiles, Winslow

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Sun Sep 08, 2019 8:05 am

A recent article from the Montana Standard was featured/linked in the Wright Society e-newsletter many of us receive:
https://mtstandard.com/news/local/minin ... ociety_165

The article has a sentence that is misleading:

The Luxfer operation took off in 1897 after it bought a series of more than 40 patents for prisms, invented by a 30-year-old architect named Frank Lloyd Wright.

Wright did not invent any of LuxferÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s prisms. Wright was commissioned, or possibly offered up, a series of decorative surface enhancements to the existing Luxfer product, likely through his friendship with William Winslow who had developed a means for panelizing the tiles for the Luxfer company. Wright patented his decorative designs, but he was not the inventor of the actual prisms produced by Luxfer. Of the 40-some decorative enhancements designed by Wright, only 1 pattern was chosen for mass production. See these links:
https://www.luxfercylinders.com/about/company-history
https://glassian.org/Prism/FLW/index.html

Duncan · Post by **Duncan** » Sun Sep 08, 2019 3:05 pm

I once lived in an 1810 house in Philadelphia where all the glass was purple. I just googled purple glass and came up with the following:

Why Does Glass Turn Purple? - Sciencing

https://sciencing.com Ã¢â‚¬Âº Science Ã¢â‚¬Âº Geology Ã¢â‚¬Âº Fundamentals
Why Glass Turns Purple Glass exposed to sunlight for a long period of time will turn purple if it contains manganese. However, glass that contains manganese that is not exposed to sunlight, UV light or other forms of radiation will retain its clear appearance.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sun Sep 08, 2019 4:29 pm

That would explain the frequency of lilac-colored glass found in many an antiques parlor. Of two similar clear or frosted vases or lighting globes, one might be colorless and the next a little lavender or violet in hue: very old houses on the East Coast often have a sprinkling of lilac in their windowpanes.

It seems to me that eighteenth- or nineteenth-century New England pressed glass is found to demonstrate this trait ...

S

Reidy · Post by **Reidy** » Sun Sep 08, 2019 6:25 pm

The Beacon Hill / Back Bay neighborhood of Boston is famous for this.

One version of the story is that the windows came that way in a dud shipment from Europe. Sending them back for an exchange was not an option, so they made do. Apparently that's not true.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Mon Sep 09, 2019 9:46 am

The Luxfer company history linked above makes interesting reading. It seems the company is keeping up nicely with the march of time, making products required by new road transportation modes, among other things. Interesting that they retain the original company name ...

S