Akro Agate Names

[Steph]

If I'm reading them correctly, here are the names/labels on the compartments in the sample cases:

• Akro Specials
  
• Prize Name
  
• Moss Agates
  
• Akro Spirals
  
• Sparklers
  
• Onyx
  
• Glassies
  
• Akro Ace
  

And here are the other names I've seen in Akro publications for marbles they sold after they started making corkscrews:

• Moonie
  
• Flintie
  
• Fire Opal
  
• Royal
  
• Tri-Color
  
• Cardinal Red
  
• Imperial
  
• Carnelian
  

I wouldn't be surprised if there were more. These are just the ones I can presently locate in Akro ads and enclosures. Most from 1930 or later. (The reference I saw to Flintie was probably printed before 1930.)

More names I've learned since I first compiled this list:

• Tri-Onyx (popeyes)
  
• Crystal
  

New uses I've learned for old names since I first compiled this list.

• Lemonades and limeades were marketed as Moss Agates
  

What name(s) were oxblood corks marketed under?

• Some I think were moss agates.
  
• Some seem to have been distributed in Imperial packaging.
  
• I think they may have been distributed in Popeye boxes also.
  
• Other?
  

Did Akro use Specials to refer to any one type of marble? Or rather to whatever the marble du jour was? For instance, did salesmen go around with their nifty case, showing off Akro's standard lovelies, and then they point up to the top compartment in the sample case and say, "And here are the specials we are offering." ??

Which names started as one thing and became another?

Edited October 28, 2009 by Steph

[Steph]

Space reserved for early examples?

Links to examples?

(mainly space reserved. This thread started out to be entirely about specials. But I've consolidated that into the one post below.)

[Steph]

Specials?

I'm still sort of mystified by the "specials" name. Here are examples. They don't fit the current "textbook" definition of specials. That is to say, they don't look like there is any emphasis on three-color corkscrews in these sets.

1. Akro Box, any repro's of this box? shows an Akro Special No. 00 box, with an assortment of marbles. [edit: the pix are gone. I can only report that they weren't textbook specials.]

2. In Post #6 of the same thread Art mentions seeing a Special box filled with random corkscrews in 2 and 3 colors.

3. Here is a box Al showed at LOM with two-color corks and patches.

4. Here's a box belonging to Patry, with patches.

5. This peek at the Specials compartment in the Saleman's box which Galen posted in another LOM thread shows 2 color patches.

6. The marbles in this Salesman's box are out of order, but they still look as if they could be all or most of the original ones. And I don't see three-color corkscrews to put in the Specials compartment. (If they're not original, I have to wonder what was taken out since so many good ones are still there.)

7. I do have at least one other box pic labelled special, and again it has something other than three-color corks. I'll add it here when I find it again.

8-ish. And now here is a weird sorta special box Alan had for sale. It didn't say Akro Special. It said Kress-Special. That was marked out and Opals was written by hand. So, I have no idea if it "counts". But it's fun.

update:

9. I've seen one more salesman sample case since I wrote this. It appears to be in very good order. The special compartment does have corks, nice ones. They are ades, popeyes and eggyolks. Still not textbook 'specials'.

[Steph]

Specials update:

I have lost track now of how many boxes or compartments I've seen labeled However, I do have a copy of an Akro pricelist which at least partially explains why the contents of an "Akro Special" box would be all over the place. This is from a 1933 jobbers price list which George Sourlis sent me:

(click to enlarge)

I still haven't seen any evidence that Special ever referred to one particular type of marble. It just makes sense to me that the Specials compartment in the salesman case would be for mibs which weren't part of the main selection but Akro still wanted people to know about - such as popeyes, carnelians or other unusual corks!

(click to enlarge)

And we definitely know that at one point at least, Akro called 3-color corks "tri-color agates", as seen on the catalog page below. So did they ever change over to calling those specific marbles Specials? Or did the tradition of calling them Specials come about in modern times?

(click to enlarge)

[Delbert]

That price list shows the marbles priced per mille, which is a lot of 1,000. $4 per thousand of Prize Name Agates. Of course that was in Depression era dollars, but still amazingly cheap considering the quality.

[Steph]

Interesting observation. And that was for the shooter size. 4 for a penny to the jobbers. Higher cost to the kids of course.

Sparklers could be had for even less!

[Jasper]

If I'm reading them correctly, here are the names/labels on the compartments in the sample cases:

• Akro Specials
  
• Prize Name
  
• Moss Agates
  
• Akro Spirals
  
• Sparklers
  
• Onyx
  
• Glassies
  
• Akro Ace
  

And here are the other names I've seen in Akro publications for marbles they sold after they started making corkscrews:

• Moonie
  
• Flintie
  
• Fire Opal
  
• Royal
  
• Tri-Color
  
• Cardinal Red
  
• Imperial
  
• Carnelian
  

I wouldn't be surprised if there were more. These are just the ones I can presently locate in Akro ads and enclosures. Most from 1930 or later. (The reference I saw to Flintie was probably printed before 1930.)

More names I've learned since I first compiled this list:

• Tri-Onyx (popeyes)
  
• Crystal
  

New uses I've learned for old names since I first compiled this list.

• Lemonades and limeades were marketed as Moss Agates
  

What name(s) were oxblood corks marketed under?

• Some I think were moss agates.
  
• Some seem to have been distributed in Imperial packaging.
  
• I think they may have been distributed in Popeye boxes also.
  
• Other?
  

Oxblood corks first appeared in 1929 in Imperial boxes. See an article in W.V.M.C.C. newsletter titled "What's an Akro Imperial"? --- Jasper

Did Akro use Specials to refer to any one type of marble? Or rather to whatever the marble du jour was? For instance, did salesmen go around with their nifty case, showing off Akro's standard lovelies, and then they point up to the top compartment in the sample case and say, "And here are the specials we are offering." ??

Which names started as one thing and became another?

Two come to mind. Akro Prize Names were specified as a few 2-color corkscrews. Later many other 2-coor corks were called Prize Names. The other notable change was in the Akro Imperial, Originally they were "Red" (Oxblood) swirls on monie base glass. Later they became Orange swirls on a translucent base (these are Aces). Still later they became the 7 most collectable oxbloods - lemonade, limeade, silver, blue, orange, carnelian, and egg yolk oxbloods. Finally, there is one Imperial Box that contains 25 3-color corks.-- Jasper

Another comes into my mind. Tri-colors were originally tri-color corks in 1930. In the late 1930s or early 1940s they were renamed Uniques, and were just tri-color patched marbles.. I think Akro Royals were renamed in the 1940s ad becane Heroes. - Jasper