A previous owner of our 1890s house decided to build all sorts of brick walls in the basement, none of them hold anything up, or actually have a purpose. They just exist.

So, when the drain pipe for the kitchen sink needed repairs I had to first dismantle a six foot by three feet by two foot section of bricks just to find the problem.

The bricks are scavenged, mostly ordinary nameless ones, some from the Victoria-based Baker Brick company, a few heavy road bricks, and a bunch of old hand cut ones. Many of these early bricks have the wire marks from when the clay was cut to shape.

One of these bricks also has the indentations made by one of the brick company employee’s hands as they moved the unfired brick. It was gripped with some pressure because the clay was pushed up by the fingers. And the impressions best fit the right hand.

Just another curiosity from the basement.