Frank Lloyd Wright Glass Tiles

swernecke · Post by **swernecke** » Tue Nov 19, 2013 8:21 pm

My dad has a bunch of the tiles which I presume to be authentic tiles. They are the saw tooth and some of the flower design. All or most of them have a purple tint to them, and some half panes he has have a Luxfer tile in it.

Question, how do I go about authenticating these?

Some tiles have a L or a K on them... ideas?

Thanks!

Rood · Post by **Rood** » Tue Nov 19, 2013 9:04 pm

Are you able to send photographs?

swernecke · Post by **swernecke** » Tue Nov 19, 2013 9:13 pm

[quote="Rood"]Are you able to send photographs?[/quote]

I can tomorrow for sure. Could I email them to you? Im taking a few peices with me to take to an antique store to see if they can help authenticate them. I have scoured the internet with not much luck. He has the saw tooth's [img] http://thumbs1.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/ ... Tok4lw.jpg [/img] Like this and the flower, http://www.steinerag.com/flw/Artifact%2 ... Luxfer.htm like on that page. They are purple in color and most are in excellent shape.[/code]

Rood · Post by **Rood** » Tue Nov 19, 2013 10:08 pm

Better to send photographs to SDR ... who is able to post them to this site. See the "McCartney Restoration" thread, page 3, for his profile, PM, and e-mail address, dated 19 November and attached at the bottom of the post that features photos.

krietzerjak · Post by **krietzerjak** » Tue Nov 19, 2013 10:19 pm

I don't think anyone has made reproductions of these, originals are pretty common. There were millions of them made, and buildings with them still in place are easy to find in almost every town. As you see on the Steinrag site in the link you provided, only one design from Wright was made. There were several manufacturers and many different designs. The purple ones may have changed color due to sunlight, or could have been made that way. I saw a building in Grand Rapids, MI that had a few green ones set in with mostly clear (not Luxfer).

Andy

swernecke · Post by **swernecke** » Tue Nov 19, 2013 10:37 pm

[quote="krietzerjak"]I don't think anyone has made reproductions of these, originals are pretty common. There were millions of them made, and buildings with them still in place are easy to find in almost every town. As you see on the Steinrag site in the link you provided, only one design from Wright was made. There were several manufacturers and many different designs. The purple ones may have changed color due to sunlight, or could have been made that way. I saw a building in Grand Rapids, MI that had a few green ones set in with mostly clear (not Luxfer).

Andy[/quote]

Are they worth anything?

krietzerjak · Post by **krietzerjak** » Wed Nov 20, 2013 7:52 am

You can do a search on ebay completed listings. Some don't sell and are relisted. I bought some several years ago that had been put together for a window hanging, mostly the plain ones with a few with the flower design. I think there is one that actually has the Luxfer signature. On buildings I see them still in place, there is usually only one that has the Luxfer name. They usually have mostly plain tiles with a row of the flower style around the border. The signed Luxfer ones may be the hardest to find, but they won't have the Wright flower.

I noticed on the ebay search, there is a set of coasters that have the flower design. These were made for gift shops and have little rubber feet. They don't have the prisim pattern on the back like the real tiles. They are thinner than the real ones too.

Andy

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Wed Nov 20, 2013 9:07 am

FYI:
The Luxfer company still exists, though they have long since left the glass prism business:

http://www.luxfercylinders.com/about-luxfer#about166

Scroll down in the history to see an intersting tie in to William Winslow, probably Wright's intro to the company.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Wed Nov 20, 2013 2:00 pm

http://glassian.org/Prism/FLW/index.html

pp 15-16, David A Hanks, The Decorative Designs of FLLW, Â© 1979 by E P Dutton, New York:

Luxfer Building project:

KevinW · Post by **KevinW** » Wed Nov 20, 2013 2:14 pm

The Luxfer glass blocks general sell for $25 each. Once in a while an intact framed panel appears with several examples..typically the Wright designed tile is used as a border to the common examples. I've seen panles sell for upwards of $1200, but that was years ago, and the panel would have 30 or 40 blocks in it. Since they are still very common, their value reflects that.

swernecke · Post by **swernecke** » Sat Nov 23, 2013 3:32 pm

http://i.imgur.com/g257JIS.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/oy3BWp1.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/z3MkTVc.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/TvyBu7g.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/BUNuDcu.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/eSgPv1n.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/6sDDSlC.jpg

These dont show the color as well. But the tiles I have are the purple tint.

He also said the panes have some half tiles in it as well.

swernecke · Post by **swernecke** » Sat Nov 23, 2013 3:36 pm

This is the tile with the L on it that I was curious about...
http://i.imgur.com/ghPgEGR.jpg

Another tile you can see the purple hue to it
http://i.imgur.com/FFV5yQa.jpg

swernecke · Post by **swernecke** » Sat Nov 23, 2013 7:18 pm

[quote="swernecke"]This is the tile with the L on it that I was curious about...
http://i.imgur.com/ghPgEGR.jpg

Another tile you can see the purple hue to it
http://i.imgur.com/FFV5yQa.jpg[/quote]

He would like to know an estimate on value if anyone can help

krietzerjak · Post by **krietzerjak** » Sat Nov 23, 2013 8:13 pm

In the second and third link you show, it has the tiles as I usually see them in place, mostly plain tiles with a border of the FLW designed ones with the flower design. In the lower right corner of the whole panel, there is usually one tile that says Luxfer... and I'm not sure of the complete text, not just an L. It actually spells out LUXFER, and more. Give me some time, and I'll dig out what I have. I would suggest value from what you see on ebay completed sales. I recently bought 8 tiles for about $20 total, 3 had the Wright designed flower, 5 were plain. I think that was way underpriced. Again, they are not rare. A few have sold high on ebay, most don't sell very often. A lot of people interested in Wright may want ONE tile. All of these have the horizontal prisim (ribbed) side toward inside the building, the design is on the outside. I think the most rare ones are the ones with the Luxfer (or other companies) signature, since there would just be ONE per building.

Andy

swernecke · Post by **swernecke** » Sun Nov 24, 2013 10:29 pm

[quote="krietzerjak"]In the second and third link you show, it has the tiles as I usually see them in place, mostly plain tiles with a border of the FLW designed ones with the flower design. In the lower right corner of the whole panel, there is usually one tile that says Luxfer... and I'm not sure of the complete text, not just an L. It actually spells out LUXFER, and more. Give me some time, and I'll dig out what I have. I would suggest value from what you see on ebay completed sales. I recently bought 8 tiles for about $20 total, 3 had the Wright designed flower, 5 were plain. I think that was way underpriced. Again, they are not rare. A few have sold high on ebay, most don't sell very often. A lot of people interested in Wright may want ONE tile. All of these have the horizontal prisim (ribbed) side toward inside the building, the design is on the outside. I think the most rare ones are the ones with the Luxfer (or other companies) signature, since there would just be ONE per building.

Andy[/quote]

Right. Im going to get a pic of the tiles he has with the "Luxfer" On it, I was just curious as to what the ones with the L meant.