Kokomo Opalescent Glass Company

 

Kokomo, Indiana

1888 – present

Marble production: circa 1939 – circa 1942

 

 

The Kokomo Opalescent Glass Company is the oldest manufacturer of cathedral style opalescent and stained glass in the world.  One of their early clients was Louis Comfort Tiffany. 

 

Their glass has always been made from the same recipes, using high grade quartz sand from the same Ottawa sand pits as the Peltier Glass Co.  Thus, even their rejected glass has been of high quality.   For a short time, they used this rejected glass to make marbles. 

 

Marbles were made directly from the leftover glass, with no remixing of colors, on a single machine purchased from Peltier.  Considering different accounts it appears that marble production began in late 1939.  KOG had their own company labels for boxes and bags.  Unfortunately, the marbles never generated sufficient profit and this idea was abandoned.  Sometime between about 1942 and 1945, the marble machine was sold back to Peltier and this particular company sideline was no more.

 Kokomo marbles have obvious similarities to Peltier Rainbos.  Marbles in Kokomo mesh bags have also been seen to bear resemblance to those of many other makers, e.g., Vitro, Master and even foreign marbles.  However, due to the relatively small production numbers of Kokomo marbles in their relatively short life of their run, and because their marbles appear to have been mostly distributed in the vicinity of the city of Kokomo, it is advised that one be cautious in concluding that one’s marbles were made by Kokomo if there is another reasonable source to consider.

 

 

 

 

More information:

 

American Machine-Made Marbles, 2006, Dean Six, Susie Metzler and Michael Johnson

 

http://www.kog.com