BRICK: A World History

Proceeding chronologically from the first Neolithic "bun bricks" to relatively high-tech contemporary forms, Cambridge University art historian Campbell and documentary photographer Pryce reveal the building blocks of the Coliseum, the Taj Mahal, the Florence Cathedral and the Chrysler Building, as well as more humble abodes. Pryce's photos are stunning, making up the bulk of the 600 illustrations here (570 in color) and miraculously capturing the outlines of each brick, even in such massive structures as the Great Mosque in Isfahan, Iran, or the beautiful Buddhist temples of Pagan in Myanmar. He also documents brickmaking in the Bulmer Brickworks in Suffolk, England, as a worker moulds, "strikes," "drops" and dusts large, ochre, rectangular bricks. The photos, as well as excellent period technical illustrations, are laid out in compelling two-page spreads, each with subheading (e.g., "Petrus Cuypers and the Gothic Revival in Holland") in this 9.75"×12.5" book, and are matched by Campbell's clear and intense historiography. In Sumerian times, he notes, offerings of food and drink were presented to "the brick god," who was "represented in the ritual by the first brick." More recently, mortar for the foundations of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was mixed with "a broth of barley and bark of elm" and sacred relics, accompanied by prayers, placed between every 12 bricks. A lack of detail on Chinese use of brick, particularly early brickwork, is a drawback, but the Islamic world is well-covered, and Campbell's refreshing focus on the brickmakers (often family-run businesses) and bricklayers themselves shows how techniques were kept secret to prevent early forms of industrial espionage, now posing a challenge to contemporary scholars trying to figure out how bricks were engineered even as late as the Victorian era. (Dec.)

FYI: For the New York-centric, there is the recently-published, 8.5"×11" Bricks and Brownstone: The New York Row House 1783–1929, by Charles Lockwood ( Manhattan Moves Uptown), including 300 b&w and color illustrations, among them many photos by Madeleine Isom (Rizzoli, $75 384p ISBN 0-847-82522-1).