*****See entry dated 20/03/2021 for the latest update ****
Etna bricks found in 3 different locations in Russia.
These ETNA stamps are of dubious origins.
This ETNA 2 brick was found in St Petersburg, Russia by Vladimir Smirnov.
It was found near to the TROTTE 10 brick.
The ETNA does not look like the ETNA bricks manufactured in West Lothian. Both Vladimir and I believe this is a forged ETNA brick.
It is possible it is a product of the Etna Brick Works, Buckley, Wales but I do not think so.
The TROTTE is very similar in all aspects, colour, shape, composition, size, brickmark etc and that too could be a forgery … Possibly imitating the TROTTER brickmaker from Stourbridge
Vladimir Smirnov has found or is aware of many forged bricks which were manufactured in Volyn Province (Ukraine) in 1910-20 with imitations of the RAMSAY mark (English) in various versions like RAMSAU, RAMSAV, RAMSAI, RAMSEV
Below – The Following Etna brick was found by Ilya Malcow from Moscow. It was uncovered in 2017 during the repair of the road on Khavskaya Street. The brick may date from c. 1910. It is very possible that this too is a fraudulent use of the ETNA stamp if it is purporting to have been manufactured at the Etna Works in Scotland.
Below – Another ETNA 1 brick found again by Ilya Malcow. The lettering is embossed. It was found in the City of Elektrogorsk, 75 km to the East of Moscow, Russia. At the discovery site of this brick, engineer Klasson built the very first electric power station in Russia in c. 1910.
20/03/2021 – Update – Information from Vladimir Smirnov is that these ‘Etna’ stamped bricks found in Russia may not be counterfeit bricks. Please see the new information below. For the sake of interest, I have left the original information above.
VS – JSC “Magnezit” with the board of directors located in St. Petersburg since 1901 owned the plant for the production of “refractory magnesite bricks” in the town of Satka, Ufa Province. In the mid-1910s they received an order for the production of such bricks for the plant in Saratov of the JSC called “New Ethna “(former metallurgical plant of B.Gantke). Thus, it is possible that this stamp was put “on the order” for this enterprise, which was in fact an extremely rare case of stamping bricks in Russia by the name of the client rather than the manufacturer.