What are these S-Shaped decorations?

June 9, 2009 8:06 PM

What are the S-shaped objects (seen here) I saw on houses all over Burgandy, in France?

This photo is from Avallon; note the metal S-shaped doohickey in the house front's upper right. I saw similar objects on houses all over Avallon, and in at least some other towns I went to in Burgandy.

Are these decorations? Somehow functional? A French thing, or just a local thing? I wish I had remembered to ask a local while I was there.

posted by deadweightloss to society & culture (13 comments total)

They seem to be that region's version of an Anchor Plate.
posted by jessamyn at 8:12 PM on June 9 [1 favorite]

Jessamyn is right.

They are used to keep masonry walls from splaying.

They are connected through the building with iron rods.

In the US they are usually start-shaped or circular - if you look you will start seeing them on all kinds of 19th and early 20th century buildings.
posted by Tchad at 8:21 PM on June 9

Mainly functional, but with a decorative form. They are tied in to a beam - a horizontal structural element - (or to a threaded steel rod that can be tightened) and usually there will be another on the opposite side of the house. They basically bind the outer brick wall and pull it in, preventing it from bowing out - the 'S' shape spreads the force over a larger area. I think they are usually added as a remedy for such problems, and this certainly isn't limited to France. You see this same technique used all over the world on old brick/masonry buildings.
posted by Flashman at 8:21 PM on June 9

No connection with old-style fire insurance markers? The one in the illustration seems awfully close to the corner of the building to be useful as an 'anchor'.
posted by woodblock100 at 8:44 PM on June 9

I have seen similar things hammered into the the end of railroad ties and/or large wooden beams. After thinking about it for a while, I decided that they must be there to keep the ends from splitting along the grain. I have not been able to verify this through googling, so I am probably wrong.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 9:13 PM on June 9

I would say no, not related to the fire insurance markers.

I used to do limited restoration work on Victorian buildings. This building is probably far older than that. What I found was that it is not unusual for someone to remove them at some point in the building's history because they did not understand that they were more than decorative. Or perhaps they were trying to do work in the ceiling of the top floor and needed to get rid of that pesky bar that was in the way. This kind of thing happened a lot when old buildings were electrified or gas pipes run. My guess (and it is just that) is that there were one or two more that would have been evenly spaced from the eaves across the front.

Sometimes they were added later, but most of the time (in my experience) they were built with the structure. It really depends on the age of the building. It could be that this one was added when the top of the wall started to pull away. You would have to be up against the stucco to see if there were any clues, or in the rafters to see if there were scars from the removal.

It is used almost exclusively on masonry buildings, but I have seen two examples down South where farmers got creative with them to winch plank barns that were under-engineered back into shape with steel cable. Not the best of ideas, but it was up 40 years when I saw them.
posted by Tchad at 9:25 PM on June 9

Funny, but in Quebec they all have that shape as well.
posted by furtive at 9:48 PM on June 9

What Jessamyn said; I've seen the S shaped anchors in DC.
posted by orthogonality at 10:47 PM on June 9

You get them all over the UK on old cottages.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:37 AM on June 10

Those are very cool looking. I wish that my house had those instead of the big plain round washers that are holding the front of my house on.
posted by octothorpe at 3:44 AM on June 10

I'm glad this was asked, since I've wondered about this for a while after seeing them on many older Australian buildings, too.
posted by bunglin jones at 3:58 AM on June 10

The S shape seems to be the most common shape in Ontario too.
posted by saucysault at 4:58 AM on June 10

In the US they are usually start-shaped or circular

I think that should be, star-shaped.
posted by Rash at 7:15 PM on June 10