In 1897, Frank Lloyd Wright patented
a style of prismatic glass tile designed
to refract and diffuse light into the
building from the outside for
maximum lighting efficency. These
tiles were generally used in store fronts
as the transoms to the larger plate glass
display windows. Wright patterned
this design for the Luxfer Prism
Company in 1897. Some of the other
tiles that were made, have a beautiful
geometric flower design, a raindrop
pattern, pleated design, and some were
just plain. There were a total of 96
designs that Wright had patents on. A
complete collection would be almost
impossible to find, but if you look very
hard, a number of these tiles can still
be found.
Luxfer made other designs, some of which are
shown below
"Plain" Luxfer tile
"Panel" Luxfer Design
"F.L.W." "Flower" Design
Luxfer "Name" tile
Luxfer "Raindrop" tile
The tile at the left is a Raindrop
pattern tile made by Luxfer.
The way you can tell the
Luxfer tile from the American
3 way, is that the top of the
drops are more rounded in the
Luxfer version. American 3
Way ended up acquiring
Luxfer, and had rights to
produce all the designs
A copy of the original patent
Copyright© 2000 by Guardfrog Designs
This web page is protected by international copyright laws.
No part of this page may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, digital recording,
or by any other information storage and retrirval system
without permission in writing by the author and/or Guardfrog Designs.
Use of any of these descriptions or photos are strictly prohibited without permission.
GLASS PRISM TILES FROM
THE LATE 19TH CENTURY
LUXFER HAD OFFICES IN ALL PRINCIPAL
CITIES OF THE WORLD. HERE'S A NEAT
ADVERTISING PAPERWEIGHT.