Shadows of a Forgotten World

Riunione Adratica was an Italian insurance company specializing in fire insurance and cargo-transport insurance. The company was founded in 1838 in Trieste, which at that time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. "Almost immediately branch agencies or representative offices were opened in Athens; Budapest; Graz, Austria; Leghorn, Lugano, and Milan, Italy; Berlin; Kotor, Yugoslavia; Lvov, Russia; and Prague. In 1840, operations were expanded to include reinsurance, and in 1846, livestock coverage. By 1844, further agencies had been opened in Cologne; Gdansk, Poland; Florence; Hamburg; Nuremberg; Szczecin, Poland; and Warsaw." More about the company can be found here . Since Mukachevo came under Austrian control as part of the Kingdom of Hungary in the mid-eighteenth century, it explains why an Italian insurance company used to insure this building. The  fire mark itself must date from sometime between 1838 and 1918.

Most of the buildings in Stockholm's Old Town are still adorned with fire marks  –  plaques that showed that a building was insured in case of a fire. The signs, which depict a phoenix rising from the flames, were introduced in the 1740s. In the event of a fire, the fire brigade would first concentrate its efforts on buildings marked with the phoenix.

To my surprise, I found fire marks in my suburb! "Though long past are the days when the metal symbol of an insurance company affixed to the front of a house afforded its owner the only sure means of protection from loss by fire, these quaint marks are still occasionally found on early American dwellings and are eagerly captured by collectors when new buildings take the place of old. Used in London as far back as 1680 by the first insurance company to maintain its own fire brigade, this manner of marking insured houses was adopted in 1752 with the formation of the Philadelphia Contributionship, whose design of three hands clasped promised security to many a Quaker family. The vigilant eagle, the sheltering tree, miniature reproductions of the fire-fighters equipment-the engine, the hose, the fireplug-were some of the appropriate emblems chosen by other companies. Prominently placed, these little plates were also an added incentive to volunteer firemen, who knew that a reward aw...

When I was in Annapolis I saw some oval plaques with images of trees, eagles, engines, etc. on some of the old buildings. I thought they were something exclusive to Annapolis, but when I returned to my suburb I found a couple of them there and realized it was something worth researching. It turns out that they are fire marks (insurance plaques ) , meaning they indicated that a building was insured against fire. “Beginning in the 1750s, some American insurance companies issued metal fire marks to policyholders to signify that their property was insured against fire damage. The fire marks bore the name and/or symbol of the insurer, and some included the customer’s policy number. The company or agent would then affix the mark to the policyholder’s home or business. For owners the mark served as proof of insurance and a deterrent against arson. For insurance companies the mark served as a form of advertising, and alerted volunteer firefighters that the property was insured,” from the ...