What are they and where are you putting them? Common questions my husband asks when I bring home a new treasure. These beauties are vintage ceramic gas heater bricks. The previous owner used them for utility, to radiate heat in their home. I’ll use them to make a shelf more interesting. In their previous life, they were set in front of a gas heater to radiate warmth. To me, they represent tiny architectural salvage. These utilitarian bricks are unusual statues used for odd home decor.
Looks like something out of The Jetsons, I know. It’s a vintage 1960s to 1970s Dearborn Quest Heater. Ceramic bricks radiate heat by absorbing it, retaining it due to their high thermal mass, and slowly emitting it as infrared radiation. In electric heaters, an electrical current passes through the ceramic, converting electrical energy to heat, which the ceramic then radiates.
I knew none of this when I saw these lovelies sitting on a tarp at a flea market, I just knew they were mine. I paid a weird amount of money for them and brought home with me.
Is that the end of the story for my tiny architectural salvage…..? Of course not. I’ve found interesting ways to weave them into the fabric of my decor. They make absolutely no sense but seem to fit perfectly everywhere.