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For What Companies Did Rosenthal Jobber?


Steph

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Reading in the Alley book, I see that Rosenthal acquired the Lawrence Glass Novelty Company in or around 1931, and had been doing business with them before that.

So that would suggest that Rosenthal jobbered early Alleys? And possibly his own LGNC marbles after that?

Also referenced in that section (pp. 11 and 12) is Akro cullet found at the LGNC site.

(This was in Sistersville.)

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Here's some from from p. 12 of the Alley book.

Mr. Alley would have had to leave later in 1931 or, at the latest, early 1932 in order to help start Vitro Agatebefore 13 April 1932, when Vitro incorporated and also start the Pennsboro plant in 1932. ....

The picture section has marbles dug at Sistersville. There are problems in identifying Alley marbles at the site. A large amount of Akro Agate cullet including their scrap marbles is also at the site. Many of these scrap marbles are identical to Akro patches dug at their site in Clarksburg. The other problem is that although Alley left, the company continued to operate until sometime between a 1935 patent and 27 March 1940 when their two buildings were sold to Bower Sales and Trading Corp. of Sistersville by Lawrence Glass Novelty Co., Charles A. Brodek, President and Herman I. Levine, Treasurer, both of New York City. The company was not operating at that time. The West Virginia Department of Labor lists them in 1938 with 25 employees. At some point a second building had been added. Alley was only at the Sistersville plant at most only a little over one year. The shear in the 27 February 1933 patent application would have been used for some time before then. These machines would have produced marbles with a different swirl pattern than the shears on earlier machines when Alley was there. This makes it impossible to identify which marbles dug at the site Alley was responsible for making. There has been much speculation as to whether or not Alley made any of the patch style marbles dug at Sistersville. Because of the 1933 patent application, I think that the emphasis at Sistersville was to make better swirls and not to compete with the larger company, Akro, who made several kinds of patches.

The discussion goes on at length in the next paragraph. Says that 30% of what has been dug at Sistersville was Akro, 70% Alley (with a caveat that "Alley" doesn't necessarily refer to Lawrence Alley's production), and a few isolated oddballs. The Akro was mostly patches, some corks, and some oxblood. The theory is that Alley needed glass, Akro had lots of excess, and contrary to intuition, the Akro cullet was useful because if you heat glass high enough and long enough it turns clear, not the dark mess many would expect.

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Here's the answer from George Sourlis from when I asked how many companies Rosenthal may have jobbered for. It has much detail and theory so I'll quote instead of trying to paraphrase:

"In Rosenthal's hard plastic packs I've seen Akro Royals and Vitros (not together in 1 pack). In the mesh bags I've seen Peltier patches. It seems like there are some gift boxes with stained glass design that have Christensen Agates. These may be Rosenthal gift boxes. Perhaps the Robin Hood gift box is by Rosenthal. I've seen it with Akros and with Peltiers (not together in the same Robin Hood Box). Jobbers like Pink, Gropper, Charles Drake (Reglar Fellers marble puzzles) and others by pricing. Whoever had the best prices at the time they needed stock was liable to be from whom they purchased. It seems that I've seen Alleys in some of the mesh bags, but not sure."

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How much Akro corkscrew cullet was found?. Is it possible Rosenthal made a lot of the patches they packaged at the Alley plant?

Curious about the amount of corkscrew cullet too.

I like the idea that Rosenthal might have -- maybe not made, but commissioned? the patches at Sistersville?

Finally got the Alley book too. And it kinda sounds like to me that Alley himself was in and then out of Sistersville so quickly, we may be going up a blind alley, so to speak, trying to associate anything found there with L. E. Alley the man -- and what we usually think of as "his" marbles.

That's a beautiful box, Ron!

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  • 3 months later...

Anyone have a bag of snot agates? ... which I'm guessing is Rosenthal because of there being 38 ... and now I wonder if Rosenthal made the snot agates themselves at the Lawrence Glass Novelty Company.

1932_SnotAgates_GobfeederPrices_-1.jpg

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Last springs show here in Decatur, George Sourlis, done a talk and had some paperwork, with posters to buy on Rosenthal marbles and packaging. He done a fine job and everyone enjoyed the little seminar. We had many questions and sought many answers. It was fun and we do this type of activities for most of the shows. We are working on another marble subject for this falls show on friday afternoon. Chuck G--

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